


Kings Over Aces

by justheretobreakthings



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Aromantic Asexual Keith (Voltron), Aromantic Asexual Pidge | Katie Holt, Aromantic Keith (Voltron), Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Black Paladin Keith (Voltron), Gen, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) Whump, Keith (Voltron)-centric, Missions Gone Wrong, Non-Consensual Touching, Protective Pidge | Katie Holt, Protective Team, Rape/Non-con Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:21:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22772455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justheretobreakthings/pseuds/justheretobreakthings
Summary: The Voltron Coalition has an alliance in the works with the resource-rich planet of Yuipra, and it’s the paladins’ job to keep on the king’s good side while the deal is made. That shouldn’t shouldn’t be too great a challenge; after all, they’ve courted plenty of planets before for the sake of alliances.Unfortunately, things are made much more complicated when the king takes a special interest in Keith.
Relationships: Keith & Voltron Paladins, completely one-sided attraction
Comments: 96
Kudos: 497





	1. Chapter 1

“Keith, for the heavens’ sake, elbows _off_ the table.”

“Hm?”

In the seat beside him, Allura sighed and tapped at the aforementioned elbow, which Keith had been resting on the tablecloth as he idly drummed one of his spoons against the edge of his plate. “Oh,” he whispered, “Sorry.”

“Honestly,” Allura said with a shake of her head. “How many dinners is Voltron going to have to get through before you finally start remembering your table etiquette?”

“Pretty sure it differs from planet to planet,” Keith pointed out.

“There are certain constants that are nigh universal at an elegant dinner. This is one. And while we’re on the subject, that spoon of yours - ”

“Right, right,” Keith muttered, dropping the spoon with a clatter that echoed loudly enough in the spacious dining hall to send all eyes on the banquet table in his direction and make him wince. “Just bored.”

“Yeah, speaking of etiquette,” Lance spoke up from across the table, “Isn’t it sort of improper to keep guests waiting this long for dinner? I’m hungry.”

“Lance,” Allura said through gritted teeth. “Don’t complain.” She gestured with a flick of her head toward further down the table, where the gathered Yuipran nobles were seated, chatting idly amongst themselves. “We’re trying to make a good impression.”

“They’re not listening,” Lance said.

“You don’t know that. Besides, their king was probably simply delayed over some administrative matter or something of the sort. I’m sure the meal will begin soon.”

Keith let out a weary breath before reaching past his plate to take a sip from his water, the only refreshment the guests had been given to tide them over before the meal proper started. He was really starting to get tired of this king.

Yuipra would be a great addition to the coalition, he knew. They were the central power of a massive and flourishing planet system, and they had vast supplies of food, construction materials, and military power to spare. Coran had told them that Yuipra had had a strong alliance with Altea thousands of years before, and the planet had only grown more prosperous in the time since last he’d been around.

Of course, that had been ten thousand years ago, and the alliance had long since dissolved, so now they were tasked with reviving it, generations of rulers later and without Altea around to be part of the deal. Still, Allura and Coran assured the team that the planet’s interests and their shared history would tempt them toward the Voltron coalition.

Originally, they had intended to hash out an alliance over a diplomatic meeting, but somehow along the lines it was established that the current Yuipran king was interested in something a bit more showy. So, a particularly elaborate airshow had been arranged, followed by a parade and a meet-and-greet with various members of the kingdom’s nobility, none of which the king himself had been present for, and now was this extravagant banquet.

Needless to say, the paladins were all more than worn out with festivities by this point, and they just wanted to eat.

“Keith, you’re slouching,” Allura hissed, and Keith sat up straight with a scowl.

“Pidge is slouching too,” he pointed out, and Pidge glared at Keith across the table as she adjusted her own posture. “How come you’re not getting onto her about her table manners?”

“Pidge, don’t stick out your tongue,” Allura said as Pidge did just that. “And because she wasn’t slouching as badly as you were. Besides, as the black paladin, you’re the de facto leader of Voltron right now. The first impression _you_ make is the one that matters most.”

Keith sighed and let his eyes roam down the table toward Shiro, who was sitting patiently, quietly, hands laid neatly on his lap as he waited for the king to arrive. Allura would have had no reason to worry about _him_ making a good first impression if he were still leading Voltron.

Reason number ten thousand why Shiro should be piloting Black, not Keith, he thought sourly to himself. But that was an argument they’d already had a few dozen times over with no change.

_“Keith.”_

Keith whipped his head around to snap at Allura, but realized quickly why she had whispered his name. The others were all standing up from their seats. He hastened to join, glancing toward the end of the hall where the doors had opened and the king was finally making his entrance.

And quite the entrance it was. The doors, each reaching nearly to the ceiling of the banquet hall that was easily three stories tall, had been thrown wide open, and the king entered flanked by three guards on either side of him, each in gold-plated armor polished to a gleam. The king himself was dressed even more gaudily, complete with a bejeweled crown and a very plush cape that one guard held in his hands to keep from trailing on the floor. The lining of his formal gown was just as well-decorated, and the sleek, shoulder-length cut of his dark hair left no strand out of place.

The Yuiprans were humanoid in form, if a half foot taller and with limbs just disproportionately long enough to be uncanny at a first glance. It shouldn’t have made for particularly graceful movement, but the king’s walk was practically a glide as he made his way to the head of the table and smiled at the assembled guests, slightly pointed teeth beaming alabaster white against the smooth, somewhat silvery Yuipran skin. Keith noticed that the king was surprisingly young-looking, not sharing the wrinkles and age spots borne by most of the other nobles at the banquet.

“Not bad at all,” he heard Lance mutter, and he glanced across the table toward the other paladin, who met his eyes with a raised brow and a smirk, before frowning curiously back up at the king. He supposed, objectively, that the man was good-looking, in an overly polished sort of way. Allura shushed Lance before he could say any more, although it was unnecessary, as the king was reaching his seat just feet away from the paladins, and even Lance wasn’t foolish enough to gossip about the king’s appearance this close to him.

“His majesty, King Olren of Yuipra,” one of the guards beside him announced in a booming voice that Keith was surprised didn’t blow out his eardrum.

“Welcome, ladies, gentlemen, honored guests,” the king said, still with that broad smile. “I thank you all for your presence this evening, and for your patience. I trust that you have all enjoyed today’s entertainment, provided to you by the legendary paladins of Voltron.” He began clapping, and the other nobles quickly joined in the polite applause before he continued, “Depending on how this evening goes, this may be their first appearance of many. Our kingdom is on the verge of an historic alliance with the Voltron coalition, in defiance of the tyrannical Galra empire.” He led another round of applause, and Keith fidgeted in his stance. He just wanted to eat.

And as if reading his mind, the king continued, “But of course, that is a matter for later in the proceedings. I have kept you waiting for long enough. May I present to you, your dinner.”

The king clapped again, and for a moment Keith was worried that he was going to waste their time with yet another ovation, but fortunately this one seemed to be a cue for the servers to enter the banquet hall through the front entrance, bearing carts piled high with dishes whose scents had Keith’s mouth watering.

The food was passed out efficiently, and within a minute all the dishes were arranged along the table and the guests had begun digging in and passing the foods around to help themselves to servings. Olren waited until the servers had begun clearing out before taking his own seat, and the instant he did, one of his guards picked up the plate in front of him and moved down the table to start filling it.

“I do sincerely apologize for my tardiness,” Olren said, nodding to another guard who grabbed a jug from the table and started filling his goblet. “I’m afraid personal matters came up that required my attention, and following that, there seemed to be some delays in preparations for this feasts. I hope you do not think poorly of me for it.”

“Not at all,” Allura said, plastering a smile on her face. “The food looks excellent, your majesty.”

“And tastes even better,” he said. “The cooks do so spoil us at these events. Not, of course, that I would ever have it any other way,” he added with a little laugh.

“Yeah, no kidding,” Keith muttered, glancing at his oversized crown.

“Come again?” the king said.

Keith held back a wince as Allura kicked his foot beneath the table. “Keith here was just commenting on your lovely ensemble,” she said.

“Ah, yeah,” Keith agreed. “It’s, uh, very nice. Shiny.”

“Well, thank you,” Olren said, his smile broadening as he reached up to pat the crown. “You know, this is in fact the same crown that has been passed down along the family line since our old alliance with Alfor. Of course, some work has been done on it over the centuries. It’s a great deal more elaborate than it once was.”

“Doesn’t it get, like, heavy?” Keith asked.

“I suppose it would were I not accustomed to wearing it. Besides, a bit of a sore neck is a small price to pay for regality, is it not? Finery is not just for looking pretty, it is a display of our planet’s prosperity.”

Keith shrugged. “I dunno. I figure what a planet _does_ is a lot more important than what they _have_.”

He was kicked again under the table as Allura hastily said, “Not that we don’t see the value in your prosperity. After all, we are _in need of your resources_.” She emphasized the last bit with a glance toward Keith. “I assure you, we don’t mean to criticize you for ostentation or - ”

“Really, think nothing of it,” Olren said. “I think we all feel at times that all the decorative baubles can feel a bit silly. Wouldn’t give up my favorite gems for the world, but I’m open to debate on their merit.” He laughed. “Come now, princess, mustn’t be so tense. If anything, I admire your paladin’s candor. It’s all too lacking in court at times.”

“Well, you really can’t count on Keith’s opinion for fashion and decorations and stuff anyhow,” Lance spoke up. “Keeps his whole room pretty much bare and _refuses_ to participate in makeover nights. Me, though, I’ve always had an eye for aesthetic.”

“Do you, now?” said Olren.

“Oh yeah. I can appreciate a truly beautiful outfit, you see. And let’s talk about this gorgeous dining hall, right? I have a bit of a flair for interior design myself.”

“All you do is stick selfies all over your wall,” Keith said. “How is that interior design?”

Lance scowled. “Hey, you don’t get to have opinions on anything related to things looking nice. I swear,” he added to Olren. “This guy’s morning routine consists of two ticks with a comb and nothing else.”

“Well, there’s something to be said for natural beauty,” Olren said, casting Keith a grin and a quick wink. The latter furrowed his brow.

“Speaking of natural beauty,” Allura said, leaning between the two of them, for which Keith was grateful - the Yuiprans seemed to blink only half as much as humans, and Olren’s stare was beginning to get a little weird - “We flew past some absolutely gorgeous forests en route to your capital. How do you manage to maintain the natural landscape so near to a hub of industry?”

Olren beamed at her and quickly flew into an explanation, and Keith let his mind drift as he methodically moved food from plate to mouth. He let his eyes wander along the table to check on the other paladins. Hunk seemed to be focused entirely on the food, despite a noblewoman at his side tapping his shoulder as she spoke to him. Keith had to admire Hunk’s resilience; he himself would have slapped her hand away after a couple of ticks of that annoyance. Pidge had a group of nobles enthralled by whatever story she was telling, and although she was just far enough down the table that Keith couldn’t quite make out what she was saying, the way she talked with her hands - occasionally sending a bit of food flying off her spoon - meant she was enthusiastic about the topic, whatever it was. Electronics or physics, were Keith’s guesses. She could infodump on either for hours on end without pausing to catch her breath.

Shiro was deep in his own conversation too, with a couple of nobles across the table, although he was much more subdued than Pidge. Keith couldn’t imagine that Shiro was exactly having the time of his life here either. At events like this where the goal was coalition recruitment, he and Allura usually took on the bulk of discussing specs and logistics with their potential allies, and although Shiro didn’t make a big deal out of anything, Keith could remember how much moaning and groaning Shiro had done on those occasions where he’d been roped into attending fundraisers for the Garrison. This can’t have been very different.

After a minute or so of Keith idly watching him, Shiro finally glanced his way, and Keith made a show of yawning, expecting Shiro to perhaps give him a little smile and subtle eye roll, something to say, Yes, this is boring, we’ll all complain together once we’re back at the ship. Instead, though, Shiro just quirked a brow and tapped at the crook of his flesh arm with his metal arm.

Keith tilted his head, and Shiro just tapped again. _“What?”_ Keith mouthed.

 _“Elbows,”_ Shiro mouthed back.

Oh. Right. He quickly took his elbows off the table; he hadn’t even realized he’d moved them. He turned to mouth an apology, but Shiro had already returned to his conversation. With a little huff, Keith jabbed his fork back into his food.

For a while, he managed to let the conversations drift around him, while his focus stayed on the meal. It was slow going, as the meat was much chewier than he would have liked - the Yuiprans definitely made good use of their sharp teeth. His attention was only pulled away when he overheard Allura say his name. “Hm?” he said, turning to her and hastily trying to swallow his bite of food.

“She wasn’t calling you, Mullet,” Lance said. “We’re just talking about weapon specialties, she said you use a sword.”

“Oh,” said Keith. “Yeah.”

“So you two both specialize in fairly close-range combat then, yes?” Olren said, eyes moving between Allura and Keith. “I must say, I’ve no end of admiration for those who are able to engage in such a thing. Yuipra’s own military has only small numbers of infantry soldiers, but I can only imagine the bravery required to go headfirst into battle that way.”

“Well, it’s not like ranged combat isn’t intense in its own way,” Lance said. “Much harder to know where your enemy’s next strike is coming from. And riflery, that takes a lot of discipline and patience to master, especially in the heat of battle.”

“I suppose you have a point,” Olren said as Lance paused to reach for his drink. He smirked before continuing, “Perhaps it just comes down more to the fact that - if I may be so bold as to say so - I quite respect a man who can so deftly handle his sword.”

Lance let out a little squawk that turned into a coughing fit, some of his drink spilling out over the edge of his glass. Keith raised a brow at him, but Olren plowed on. “Have you any other specializations, Keith? It is Keith, yes?”

“Yeah, Keith,” he said, turning back to Olren. “Uh, nah, mostly just blades. We’ve all got a good handle on aerial combat by now too, though.”

“Ah, yes, I caught some of your earlier show,” Olren said. “You’re all quite talented pilots.”

“Thanks,” Lance said, leaning back into the conversation. His voice held the slightest rasp left over from his coughing fit. “Don’t like to brag, but we’ve gotten pretty rave reviews. Think I’ve heard the word ‘miraculous’ tossed around a bit.”

“I’m not sure I recall hearing that word precisely,” Allura said. “But I must agree. The Lions are nothing short of a miracle of engineering.”

“Well, okay, but I was actually talking about my flying.”

Keith settled back into his seat, happy to let Allura and Lance take over the conversation again, even if, as the meal progressed, the king did try to pull Keith back into it a few times with questions aimed at him specifically. He managed to never trip over words, and Allura never sent him the disapproving glance that meant he’d accidentally said something rude, so all in all, he figured he could write the evening off as a success.

Of course, that didn’t mean it wasn’t still a relief when the meal finally drew to an end and the servers began clearing the dishes away, the guests beginning to make their goodbyes.

“A pity we could not continue further,” Olren sighed amidst the sounds of chairs scraping along the floor as people began leaving their seats. “It feels to me that this meal has passed us by in mere ticks.”

“Uh-huh,” Keith said, as a courtesy only; to him, these events - feasts and banquets and all the other social obligations to which the paladins were constantly dragged - always seemed to last an eternity. He was more than ready to flop into bed and sleep off the meal.

“Well, I’ve no doubt we can find time soon to pick up our fascinating discussions,” Olren said. “For the time being, I bid you all a good night. I and my establishment will be in touch shortly to go over further details about your coalition efforts.”

“We look forward to it, your majesty,” Allura said with a quick bob of her head.

With a final smile and bow, Olren began his exit, gliding around the table toward a side entrance that two guards held open for him. As he passed behind the seats, Keith felt a sudden tickle at his neck, a chill as what he could swear were fingertips brushed playfully over the skin. He whirled around in his seat, and Olren met his eyes, casting him a smirk and coyly waving his fingers at him before turning around and striding to the door.

“Keith?” Keith turned as Allura prodded lightly at his arm. “Are you coming?”

“Yeah, sorry,” he said. He rolled his shoulders and pushed his chair in before joining the others in their exit, trying to ignore the strange prickling in his spine.


	2. Chapter 2

“I’m telling you, he wants me,” Lance said, for what was probably the dozenth time since breakfast.

Pidge rolled her eyes, stretching her leg out along the couch to kick Lance where he was seated on the opposite cushion without moving from where she’d comfortably settled with her tablet. The paladins were spending their downtime after training this morning in the lounge, all having claimed their usual spots to relax, but Lance harping on about last night’s dinner was making it even more difficult than usual - which was saying something, as the weirdly translated Altean books Keith tried to pass time with were hard enough to focus on anyway. “He does not ‘want’ you,” she said. “You think every person we ever meet at these coalition things ‘wants’ you, and how many times has that been the case?”

“Plenty of times,” Lance answered. “I’m not gonna be able to keep track _exactly_.”

“It’s sort of a numbers game by this point, isn’t it?” Hunk asked, tilting his head back from where he was seated cross-legged on the floor in front of the other two to join the conversation. “You flirt with basically every single person you find attractive - ”

“ - And your standards for that aren’t exactly sky-high,” said Pidge, “So you’ve probably hit on like five hundred people since we got shot out into space. Which would make your success rate - ”

“All right, I see where this math is going,” Lance groaned. “For your information, I do not flirt with _nearly_ that many people.”

“Good point,” Pidge said. “Just winking and making finger guns probably doesn’t count. Or at least only counts as, like, half a flirt.”

“It’s not - you know what, whatever. We’re not talking about my overall track record, just last night. And that king was totally into me. Basically talked just to me the entire night. You saw, right, Keith?” He turned to Keith, who silently cursed his inability to turn invisible. “Back me up here.”

“Um,” Keith said. “Well, _you_ certainly talked to _him_ a lot.”

“I was replying to him, that’s how conversations work. But he was totally flirting with me, right?”

“Uh…”

Lance huffed and crossed his arms. “Okay, that doesn’t count for anything. Keith probably wouldn’t recognize flirting if his life depended on it.” Keith let out a little harrumph of indignation. Sure, that was true, but there was no need to just announce it like that.

“Nah, I’m gonna go ahead and take his testimony as gospel,” Pidge said. “Sorry, Lance. You bombed.”

“Need me to get Kaltenecker to make you some ice cream?” Hunk asked, reaching up to pat Lance on the leg.

“I’m like two seconds away from slapping all of you.”

“The bitter sting of rejection is such an ugly look on you,” Pidge said drily. A small beep sounded from her tablet, and a moment later, she sat up. “Allura just messaged. They’re getting an incoming signal from Yuipra, we’re probably gonna solidify alliance terms. Gotta go join ‘em in the bridge.”

Lance groaned. “Why do we all have to go? Shiro and Allura are in charge of all of that.”

“I dunno, to make a good impression?” Pidge stretched as she stood from the couch. “Besides, you should be excited. Get another chance to talk to the love of your life.”

“At no point did I ever say anything about him being the ‘love of my life’,” Lance said as he and Hunk reluctantly stood too. “All I said was that he wants me. Which I still maintain is one hundred percent true.”

“If you say so. You coming, Keith?”

“Yeah, I’m coming,” Keith said. He shut off his electric reader and dropped it onto the seat to come back to later before joining the others, shuffling in behind them for the short walk to the bridge.

When they arrived, joining Allura and Shiro on the deck, the holoscreen was already on and tuned to an image of King Olren, the arms of two of his ever-present guards just on the edges of the frame. The discussion was already in motion, but Olren paused mid-sentence as the door to the bridge slid open.

“Ah, the rest of your paladins have arrived, I see,” he said, smiling down at them as they took their places on the bridge. “It is a delight to see you all again.”

“You too, your majesty,” Hunk said.

Allura smiled as she looked back over her shoulder at the others. “King Olren was just telling us that he was quite impressed by our performance yesterday, as well as our engagement with his people at the banquet.”

“Quite so,” Olren said with a nod. “Your presence went over very well amongst my nobility. And, of course, I was just as enamored by Voltron as anyone in my court. Your knowledge and passion are obvious. Now, I’ve spent the morning reviewing the terms of our potential alliance with my advisors. Yuipra’s stance on interplanetary relations is perfectly in line with your current mission statement of resistance against the Galra empire and liberation of those under its control. However, I must confess slight apprehension over how the citizenry would respond to engaging in a conflict in which we are currently not directly involved. As your proposed terms are outlined right now, the use of our resources versus the coalition benefits that you would grant us in return seem rather unbalanced.”

“That’s only in the short term,” Shiro spoke up. “We may currently be thin on benefits, but that’s entirely due to past Galra occupation that we are working to wipe out. Already we’re seeing the signs of environmental improvements and economic growth from planets that have been liberated and are being helped by the Coalition now. The trade agreements and political relations we build now will yield positive growth over time, and in the long run it’ll more than offset the costs of your involvement.”

“And you have evidence to back your claims of long-term benefits?”

“I would be more than happy to send you any details about the Coalition’s fiscal plans and projections of resource growth that you need,” said Allura. “You will find that we have been nothing but meticulous.”

Olren nodded. “That would do nicely, Princess, if you would be so kind. I must admit, your confidence alone is quite the sales pitch.” Allura lifted her chin, a proud smile on her lips, and Olren grinned back. “The rapid creation and propagation of the Voltron coalition makes ever more sense. It’s certainly likely that Yuipra will have its part in it as you make history.”

“We thank you, your majesty,” Allura said.

“I am still not, however, quite ready yet to solidify an alliance with your coalition,” Olren continued, and Allura deflated. “Not due to problems with any stipulations we’ve laid out as yet, but because I like to know those with whom I ally on a more… personal level, you see. It is one thing to be able to ally with someone politically, but such bonds are far more meaningful, not to mention harder to break, when they are personalized to a nigh emotional level. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Allura paused a moment before answering, “Well - well, yes, of course. I completely understand where you are coming from.”

“Excellent. Now, I’ve gotten a bit of a chance to gain some familiarity during our banquet, but if Voltron would be so willing to indulge me, I really prefer to do so more privately. One-on-one, actually.”

“All right,” Allura said slowly. “So, erm, what, exactly, are you proposing?”

“Suppose I’ll get right down to it,” Olren said through a little breath of a laugh. “I wish to host an intimate dinner in my private dining room tomorrow evening. And I would like your red paladin to accompany me as my date.”

Lance cast the others a grin - a smirk that seemed to say, _I told you so_ \- before he stepped forward and bowed grandly. “Your majesty,” he said as he straightened up, “It would be an honor to - ”

“No, no, not him,” Olren said, waving a hand dismissively. “The _red_ paladin.”

“I _am_ the red - ” Lance started, before his face fell and his eyes widened. “Wait, do you mean - are you - are you talking about _Keith?!_ ” he spluttered, gesturing with his thumb toward Keith, who stood in stunned silence as all the eyes in the room spun toward him.

“Yes. Keith,” Olren said with a smile. “I do hope you will accept my invitation?”

“Uh - I - I - ” Keith stammered out.

“Is, ah, is that really necessary?” Shiro asked. “Voltron functions as a unit, you see, and there’s no need to have only one of us to dinner rather than the whole group.”

“If you function as a unit, then your red paladin’s character should reflect that of all of you,” Olren said. “You need not worry, really, over the effect on our potential alliance. I must admit, I’ve found myself quite taken with his disposition already. But you do understand why I may want to take the time to personally assure myself that we will be a good match, yes?”

“Understandable, yes,” Allura said. “I’m sure that we can arrange - ” She paused as she glanced back over her shoulder at Keith, whose knees were growing shaky and who had long since felt his face heating into a bright red.

Allura furrowed her brow and turned back toward Olren. “Could you please grant us a few doboshes to discuss our availability?” she asked. “We will be happy to resume this conversation shortly.”

“Of course,” Olren said. “I look forward to a call. And I must admit, I do expect to like what I hear. I’m not in the habit of taking ‘no’ for an answer.” He cast them all one last smile before his holoscreen went dark and then disappeared.

Allura let out a breath before turning around toward Keith. “Keith,” she said. “Are you ill?”

Keith blinked at her. “Am I… what?”

“You look ill.”

Slowly he shook his head. “No, I’m - I’m not sick.”

“Because if you have any sort of bug that the king might catch, that would certainly not reflect well, nor be ideal for you and your state of mind during a dinner. Or if something in their meal disagreed with you - ”

“It’s just, um - this is - he said.” Keith took a deep breath. “He said - he said he wanted me to be his date.”

“Yes?” Allura said. “And?”

“And, well, I, uh - I don’t - I don’t really have - ” Allura tilted her head, and Keith took a deep breath before finishing, “I don’t date.”

“Oh for the love of - ” Lance groaned. “Of course. Of _course_ Mullet’s never been on a date before. We should’ve known.”

“Is that all?” Allura asked. “Keith, I’m sure it won’t be much of a problem. Everyone gets nervous the first time they go on a date. We could always go through some etiquette with you, some conversation starters. We’ll no doubt have to brief you on a number of courting customs anyway, seeing as nobility is rather more particular in how they go about it, but I’m certain that - ”

“No, look, that’s not it,” Keith interrupted. “It’s - it’s not that I _haven’t_ dated. I mean, I, um, I haven’t, but it isn’t - it’s just that, I _don’t_ date.”

“I’m… not sure I follow,” Allura said.

With a grunt of frustration, Keith brought a hand up to card his fingers through his hair as he searched for the words to explain it in a way she’d understand. “I just - I don’t _do_ that, I - I don’t feel the things that people are supposed to feel when - when they’re on dates, like, the romance and all, they - they don’t - ”

“Hang on,” Pidge interrupted, lifting a hand and peering at him with narrowed eyes through her glasses. “Keith, are you aro?”

Keith felt his voice halt in his throat, and he crossed his arms and took a step back, ducking his head a little as he closed in on himself and avoided looking at his teammates’ faces. It wasn’t that he thought they’d react badly to it, or judge him for it - at least, he sure _hoped_ they wouldn’t. It was just that this was personal, and he much would’ve preferred to come out when he was actually _ready_ to, not just… like this.

But, of course, now that it was out there, it was out there. Not like there was any point in denying it. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “Um, aroace, to be specific, but, uh, yeah. Yeah.”

He dared a glance up beneath his lashes. Pidge was nodding slowly in understanding, and Shiro was more or less expressionless - he’d already known, after all. The others all just appeared to be confused.

“I’m sorry, arrow?” Allura said. “Pidge, what is that?”

“Aro. Short for aromantic,” Pidge answered. “Means he doesn’t feel romantic attraction.”

“Wait, for real?” Lance said, his brow wrinkling and his eyes scanning Keith up and down as if looking for some sort of clue on his clothes to verify it.

“Yes, for real,” Keith snapped. “Why the fuck would I lie about something like that?”

Lance lifted his hands innocently. “Shit, man, I wasn’t accusing you of lying. Just, you know, processing the new information. Guess that kinda clears up some of the rumors that were going around the Garrison…”

For a moment Keith was about to demand some follow-up about these rumors, but decided to let it go for now. He’d overheard plenty of gossip about himself as a student on every other subject - whether he cheated on the sims and how he did it, how he got into the Garrison, his juvie history, his relationship to Shiro, his family. A couple rumors about his sexuality were a mere drop in the bucket. It wasn’t important now.

What _was_ important was the matter at hand: the dinner date with King Olren. “Look, the point is, I don’t _do_ the whole ‘dating’ thing. It’s - it’s not my thing. I wouldn’t be able to pull it off.”

Allura crossed her arms, tapping her finger pensively against her elbow. “Well, what if we trained you on it?”

Keith frowned at her. “What?”

“On dating. I’m sure we’d be able to give you sufficient instruction to handle a single dinner date. If we trained you, do you think you’d be able to manage?”

Keith took a step back. “Allura, I told you, I don’t feel - ”

“I know, I understand. I’m not asking you to be attracted to him. I know you can’t control that. But I also know that this could be a very advantageous alliance for Voltron, and a date with you seems to be the deciding factor. Would it be at all possible for you to, er… fake it?”

“Fake it?” Keith repeated incredulously.

“Yeah, yeah, that could work,” Lance said, nodding. “I mean, that’s not exactly hard to pull off, right? I’ve faked my way through dates before. You know, I meet someone online, but when I show up to the restaurant for a date it turns out they’re a total weirdo, so I smile through the dinner and make small talk and just sorta, like, humor them. Let them have a nice evening then get the fuck outta there.”

“What, you can’t just be up front about not liking them?”

“It’s called _manners_ , Mullet.”

“Look, I’m not going to - ”

“They do kind of have a point, Keith,” Shiro interrupted.

Keith turned to him, taken aback. If anyone knew how uncomfortable Keith was over the concept of dating, it would be Shiro. Keith had only even learned about aromanticism and asexuality because Shiro had explained them to him, back in their Galaxy Garrison days, and his surrogate brother had held his hand tightly through the process of coming out for the first time. So him saying that Allura and Lance ‘had a point’ about sending him on a date… it was unexpected, to say the very least. “Shiro?” he said. “You - you think I should…”

“Keith, I’m not saying you need to, uh, take it very far,” Shiro said slowly. “I know you’ve got your boundaries, and I respect them. It’s just, well, it isn’t as though Olren is asking for your hand in marriage or anything. All he’s requested is a dinner date. I realize that it wouldn’t be a _comfortable_ experience, but one awkward evening in exchange for all the resources Yuipra can offer… It would be a shame to have to pass it up.”

“Exactly,” said Allura, giving Shiro a grateful nod. “There’s no need to make it a bigger deal than it is. One dinner date. That’s all.”

“I mean, Olren’s certainly not my type either,” Shiro said with a shrug. “But if it was me he’d asked after, well, I wouldn’t love it, but I’d take one for the team, you know?”

Something rolled in Keith’s stomach and he swallowed down a lump in his throat. That was true. Shiro would do this without hesitation. Hell, even if it had been a woman asking, which would _definitely_ leave Shiro uncomfortable to all get out, he would take the fall. Because that’s what he does - he makes sacrifices for his team. That’s what a _leader_ does. And Keith was the leader now.

One date, he repeated mentally. He could handle just one date, surely. For Voltron’s sake.

“All right,” he said, his voice coming out sounding quieter and dryer than he would have liked. “All right, I’ll, uh, I’ll do it. You can let him know.”

Allura let out a breath of relief and smiled at him. “Thank you, Keith. I’ll get a missive off to him at once, and we can start training.”

“You know what I still don’t understand?” Lance said as Allura turned away toward her podium.

“What?” asked Keith.

“This guy had a dinner with our whole team,” Lance said. “He was sitting at the same table as Shiro and Allura and, well, _me_ … and he goes for Keith. I just don’t get it.”

“Lance,” Shiro said with a frown.

“Look, I’m just saying what we’re all thinking. It’s not like he didn’t have options. He actually _chose_ to thirst after the mullet. Out of everyone there. This was a conscious decision on his part.”

“Everyone has their own tastes.”

“It’s like if he’d gone to an art museum and decided that his favorite exhibit was the bathroom door.”

“That’s enough, Lance,” Shiro scolded.

Lance shook his head. “I dunno, man. Just doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Keith could only shrug in reply. It didn’t make any sense to him either.


	3. Chapter 3

“Keith, elbows off - ”

“I know, I know,” Keith growled, moving his arms off the table. “You only told me a thousand times.”

Allura huffed. “If you hadn’t put your elbows on the table a thousand times, I wouldn’t have had to tell you a thousand times!”

“Well, what am I supposed to do with my arms, then?” Keith snapped. “I can’t use cutlery if I’m worried about my elbows the whole time!”

“All right, look,” said Shiro, leaning in to give his input. “I think the table etiquette crash course is just stressing all of us out. Why don’t we move on to conversation topics?”

“Yes, yes, fine,” Allura sighed. “That would probably be best. Here, move the silverware out of the way, we don’t want you fidgeting with anything.”

“I still don’t know what to do with my arms,” Keith said.

“We could hold hands,” Coran suggested.

_“No.”_

Coran just shrugged, leaning back into his chair with an expression that seemed to say, _your loss._

More and more as this ‘training’ went on, Keith was beginning to deeply regret agreeing to it. His jaw was sore after the half varga he’d spent in front of a mirror practicing smiling and not having what Lance had called ‘resting serial killer face’, and he was pretty sure his face was going to be permanently red from the crash course he’d been given on giving and receiving compliments. He’d certainly never be able to look Coran in the eyes ever again. The advisor had been chosen to act as Olren for the sake of the practice date, a decision that had been reached based on the fact that he and Lance were the only ones on the team with any sort of acting ability, which they had somehow decided would be helpful for ‘immersion’, and Lance had stated in no uncertain terms that he would much rather jump out of the airlock than be Keith’s fake date.

So, here he was, on a practice date with Coran, during what had to be the longest and most embarrassing afternoon of Keith’s entire life.

As Keith shoved his silverware out of the way, Shiro looked thoughtfully between the two of them. “You know, it actually wouldn’t be a bad idea to practice that,” he said. “You’ve been getting better with physical contact lately, haven’t you, Keith?”

Keith stiffened. “Um… with people I _know_ , yeah. I don’t know Olren.”

“It would probably be best, though,” Allura said. “You don’t have to go out of your way to get physical, of course, I’m not suggesting that. But if he initiates some very light physical contact, like hand holding, or an arm on your shoulder, things of that sort, it would be good to practice accepting it without showing clear tension. We want to avoid offending him.”

Keith managed to stop himself from commenting on that - remarking that _they_ want to avoid offending him, _he_ wants to just avoid this date altogether - and instead grunted out, “Fine.” He shoved his hand out to take Coran’s.

“Damn, get a room, you two,” Lance called from across the kitchen. He, Hunk, and Pidge had stationed themselves at the counter, snacking as they acted as the audience for the practice date at the dining table. With his free hand, Keith flipped him off.

“Lance,” said Shiro, “If you’re not going to contribute useful critique, please keep it down so Keith can concentrate. Keith, you’re tensing up, try rolling your shoulder.”

Keith did so, trying to ignore the awkwardness of his posture and how bizarre it felt to have fingers intertwined with his own. “All right, what now?”

“We’re going to be reviewing some topics of conversation,” Allura said as she pulled out a seat opposite him and Coran and settled into it. “Now, I know you’re not much of a talker, so our goal for your dinner date will be keeping up conversational momentum without necessarily needing you to make a lot of contribution. When you can, try to direct Olren toward answering open-ended questions. That will make you seem sufficiently engaged while putting the onus of elaboration on him, you understand?”

“Uh,” said Keith. “Sure?”

“Excellent. We’ll start with a few practice rounds in that area, and then we can move on to naturally bringing up the Coalition’s merits. Coran, begin.”

“So,” Coran said in a close approximation of a Yuipran accent, and Keith grimaced as he met his gaze. “Let’s talk about your swordfighting. I would so love to get to watch you swordfight some time. It must be terribly exciting.”

“Um, yeah,” Keith said. “It is.” In the pause that followed, Allura made a _go on_ gesture, and Keith cleared his throat. “It’s, uh, it’s… challenging? I have to practice a lot. It - it, um… I don’t know what else I’m supposed to say here.”

“Ask a question,” Allura said.

“Oh, right. Uh, do you swordfight?”

“An open-ended question, Keith. That was a yes-or-no question.”

Keith took a moment to think before asking, “When was your last swordfight?”

“Oh my God, this is just sad,” Lance groaned.

“Keith, you’re tensing up again,” said Shiro. “Take a deep breath, unclench your jaw.”

“I’m not clenching my jaw,” Keith grunted.

“Yes, you are, try relaxing your chin.”

“Like we showed you earlier, Keith,” said Allura. “Smile with your eyes.”

“I can’t - ”

“Come now, lad,” said Coran. “You can relax around your lover of the evening, can’t you?” He made a simpering expression and batted his eyelashes, and a muffled snickering rose from over near the counter.

“Okay, I’m done,” Keith said, dropping Coran’s hand and shoving his chair back from the table. “I’m not doing this anymore.”

“Whoa, Keith,” Shiro said, hurrying to grab the chair as Keith stood and nearly tipped it back onto the floor.

Coran’s coy expression dropped to a frown. “Apologies, Number Four,” he said. “Didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I was only trying to lighten the mood, make a little joke.”

“Yeah, well, this isn’t a joke for me,” Keith snapped. “And it’s not funny,” he added, gaze swiveling toward the counter where Lance was making a point to stare intently at his food rather than at Keith.

“Keith, it’s all right,” Allura said. “We’re not making fun. I know, it’s awkward, it’s uncomfortable. But we can’t very well stop. You need to know how to handle this sort of event.”

“Should we at least take a break?” Hunk piped up. “You know, uh, let things air out a bit before we go back to practicing?”

“Yes, yes, that makes sense,” Allura said with an emphatic nod. “We can take half a varga to cool down, then reconvene and try this again. We still have much to cover before your date.”

“Should we go over some common courtship activities with him?” Coran asked. “Dances, parlor games, some Yuipran fine arts? The nobility has quite a fondness for all of them.”

“I was thinking we would cover those tomorrow morning,” said Allura, “And reserve the afternoon for review. Do you think it will be enough?”

Keith let out a groan and hid his face in his hands. “I’m never gonna be able to learn all this,” he said.

Allura sighed. “Look, Keith, we don’t have much of a choice. We only have until tomorrow evening to ensure you make the best impression possible and, to be perfectly frank, you’re coming into this rather, er, clueless.”

“I don’t even think this is all going to stick,” Keith said. “All it’s doing is stressing me out even more, and I’m already pretty goddamn stressed about this whole thing!”

“You’re a fast learner, Keith,” Shiro said. “You’ll get it. You always got great test scores at the Garrison, and those classes were certainly a lot tougher than a dating crash course.”

“Yeah, but they’re classes about space and flying. You know, stuff I actually _like_. This is just torture.”

“It’s a far cry from torture,” Allura said, face falling into a stern frown. “Keith, I’m sorry, but this isn’t about enjoyability or comfort or anything of the sort. This is simply a necessary evil. We’re trying to help you navigate the evening as smoothly as possible, and you _need_ to be receptive to what we’re telling you here. You’re not going to learn it otherwise.”

“I know,” Keith sighed. “I know that.”

“And you need to get this down to memory if you’re going to successfully get through the date without us being around to remind you of every step. We can’t very well be sitting at your side giving you the pointers you need when the actual date comes along.”

Keith nodded, finally lowering his hands and crossing his arms over his chest. “Yeah, I know. Fine.”

“Um,” Pidge said, lifting a hand. “Just a minute, can I ask something?”

“What is it, Pidge?” Shiro asked.

“Why can’t you actually do that? Walk him through the date while it happens, I mean?”

“King Olren requested a _private_ dinner with Keith,” Allura answered. “We can’t accompany him.”

“Yeah, I know,” Pidge said. “That’s not what I’m suggesting. I’m saying, we’ve got comm tech here, don’t we? Microphones and earpieces and cameras and all that. If Keith’s having such a tough time getting a hang of all this dating stuff, why not just rig him up with some of that stuff so we can watch him from the Castle and you can tell him what to do or say? It’d probably be easier, wouldn’t it?”

Several ticks of silence reigned as they took that in. “That… actually makes sense,” Allura said.

“They do that sort of thing all the time in, like, sitcoms,” Lance said. “I mean, usually in those shows there’s, like, interference from a police blotter or shock rock deejay or something for comedy, but we’ve got much better tech than they do. Probably wouldn’t be a problem.”

“So, hang on,” Keith said slowly. “You guys are all going to be watching me go on a date?”

“And listening, apparently,” Hunk said.

“I - I don’t know,” Keith said. “This just seems kinda creepy.”

“What, because everything else about this _isn’t_ creepy?” Pidge said with a raised brow.

“Pidge, it’s not creepy,” Allura said. “Olren simply wants to get to know one of the paladins of Voltron to see that we’re suitable allies on a personal level, not just political. I wouldn’t consider that creepy.”

“Ehhhhh, it’s kinda creepy,” Hunk admitted.

Keith nodded toward him. “Yes, thank you.”

“Damn, man, give us some credit,” said Lance. “We’re not voyeurs or anything. We’d just be helping out.”

“It does seem like a sensible option,” Allura said. “Especially considering that our only alternative is to continue this date night training, and you certainly seem quite opposed to that.”

“And, well,” said Pidge. “My logic is, if you do it this way, we’ll be able to help out a bit if anything goes wrong, walk you through anything unexpected. That’s gotta be better than going it alone, right?”

Keith bit at his lip. She definitely had a point. Holding back a sigh, he finally relented. “All right, that’s fair. I guess, um, Pidge’s plan it is.”

* * *

The quintant passed quickly, all too quickly for Keith’s liking, but at least now the day wasn’t spent practicing for the dreaded evening. Instead, the following afternoon, he was presented with the gear he’d need for the others to walk him through the date, and that was certainly the preferable route.

The formalwear that Allura had picked out from him wasn’t exactly comfortable. The red tunic-like top squeezed his forearms at the cuffs of its sleeves, had too high a collar, and the material itched. He didn’t have much choice in the matter, though. The outfit was chosen not for its comfort level, or even for whether it was flattering on him. Instead, it was selected because of the design stretched along the top from one shoulderblade to the other: a smattering of round, black beads that easily hid the fisheye camera lens that Pidge and Coran attached to the garment, in addition to a dark stitching on the collar that camouflaged the microphone. The two of them were left in charge of readying him in his room.

“Let’s go ahead and test it to make sure the signal is coming through clearly,” Pidge said as she and Coran finished adjusting the microphone and handing him the earpiece. “I’ll head over to the bridge with the others, we’ll just try talking to each other through it real quick.”

“Sure,” Keith said.

“Don’t figure I’ll be doing any of the advice part,” she said. “Believe me, I’m just as clueless as you in that field. But I’ll be sure to, like, throw some motivational catchlines your way or something when you need them. Better than nothing.”

“Right, yeah,” Keith said. Pidge nodded before moving to the door and out of sight, and Keith returned the nod as he took the hem of the tunic in his fists to try adjusting it.

Coran batted his hand away. “No need to tug at it, Keith.”

“It’s uneven,” Keith said.

“It’s supposed to be slanted that way, it’s traditional.”

Keith scowled. “It feels weird.”

“Well - ”

“Look, I’m already going to be uncomfortable enough tonight as it is, Coran. At the _very goddamn least,_ can’t I just wear something that’s not lopsided?”

Coran’s lips pressed into a thin line, but to Keith’s relief, he nodded. “Fair point, Number Four. I can try a quick fix for you, even it out a bit.”

“Thanks,” Keith sighed. As Coran moved to adjust the tunic, Keith added, “Um, sorry, didn’t mean to snap.”

“Ah, no apology needed, lad,” Coran said. “Perfectly understandable for you to be feeling a mite on edge. Just know, your team’s going to be right alongside you all the while. This will likely be an awkward evening, but hopefully us all going through the awkwardness together will be helpful, yes?”

“Yeah, hopefully,” Keith said.

At that moment, a click sounded through the earpiece, and a booming voice followed. _“KEITH? CAN YOU HEAR US?”_

“Shit!” Keith yelped, slapping his hand over his ear. “How do I turn it down?!”

_“SORRY, ONE MOMENT.”_ There was a pause, then the voice resumed, at a much more bearable volume. _“Better?”_ Now that it was quieter, Keith could identify the voice as Allura’s.

“Yeah,” Keith said. “Better.”

_“Excellent. Your voice is coming through just fine, and we’re getting a clear picture from the camera.”_

_“Can you ask Coran to tilt it up a little bit?”_ Pidge’s voice asked. _“Olren’s taller than you, and we’re gonna want to be able to see his face.”_

“Sure,” Keith said. He passed the message along to Coran, and as the advisor made the adjustments, he asked, “So, are all of you there watching?”

_“Yes, we’re all here,”_ Shiro said, and in the background Hunk called, _“Hi, Keith!”_

“Even Lance?” Keith asked. “He won’t be any help, he already crashed and burned with this guy.”

_“Hey,”_ Lance snapped. _“Which of the two of us has actually been on an actual date before?”_

_“Keith’s sort of been on a date with Coran,”_ Pidge said.

_“That one million percent does not count,”_ said Lance.

“Whatever,” said Keith. “Just be sure to actually help, okay? None of your weird joke advice.”

_“We’re all going to take this perfectly seriously, Keith,”_ said Shiro. _“You have nothing to worry about.”_

Well, that was untrue, but Keith let it slide.

“That hem feeling better now, Keith?” Coran asked.

Keith nodded. “Yeah, thanks.”

Coran smiled and gave him a pat on the shoulder. “You should be ready to go, then. I’ll go ahead and join the others in the bridge, and you ought to get to Black and start along to your date.”

Keith nodded again, silently this time so as not to let the little bubbles of nausea that had just begun to simmer up in his throat get anywhere. With one last encouraging pat, Coran took off, and Keith followed out the door, heading the opposite way to the hangar.

For once, Keith was thankful to not have Red’s old breakneck speed on his side, since it made the short flight down from the Castle to Yuipra just a little bit longer, gave him just a little more time to put off the inevitable. All the way down, the other paladins chattered in his ear, giving him words of encouragement or bits of last minute advice.

_“You got this, Keith,”_ Hunk said. _“Just a few hours and you’ll never have to go on a date again."_

“I know,” Keith said.

_“Remember to keep your face relaxed, and keep up a smile,”_ Allura said.

“I know.”

_“We won’t be able to see your face from the camera, so it’s up to you to remember that part, yes?”_

“I know.”

_“Is it too late for you to pull over somewhere and get a decent haircut before the date starts?”_

“Fuck off, Lance.”

_“Language, Keith.”_

“I know.”

All too soon, he was landing, stepping off the ramp that descended from Black’s jaw, and heading up toward the front steps of the palace. Four of the ever-present golden guards were stationed at the entryway, and as Keith approached, they all bowed slightly, and two moved to pull open the hulking front doors. One of the others came up to him. “Paladin,” he said.

“Yeah,” Keith replied.

“You are expected. I will be glad to escort you to his majesty’s private dining room.”

“No need,” a familiar voice said. Keith peered through the opened doors and into the grand foyer of the palace, where two sweeping flights of stairs descended, each lined in golden sconces that brightened the room and left reflections dancing off the polished walls and floor. And moving gracefully down the stairs was the king himself dressed in a different ensemble than yesterday’s feast, but still just as opulent, still topped by that gaudy crown. His mouth stretched wide in a shark-like smile as he approached. “I’d be more than delighted to escort him myself.”

The guard stepped back, and Keith took a deep breath as he mustered up his own smile in return.

There was no turning back now.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mind the tags, things are getting rough.

Keith kept up his smile as best he could as Olren reached the bottom stair. It wasn’t easy; the closer Olren got, the more aware Keith felt of every sensation in his body - the sweat against the coarse fabric of his outfit; the nervous heartbeat that must have been so loud, and surely Olren could hear it and was going to misinterpret it; his posture, and where his feet were, and why did it feel like he was standing wrong, how did he normally stand, he couldn’t remember.

 _“You got this, Keith,”_ Pidge said. _“We’re with you every step of the way.”_

It wasn’t a huge reassurance, but it was just enough that Keith managed to swallow down some of the nerves by the time the king was standing before him.

“Paladin Keith,” Olren said, taking Keith’s hand in his. He lifted it to press a kiss to the back of the hand - a spot left vulnerable since Keith didn’t have his usual gloves on - before continuing, “You’re looking positively lovely this evening.”

“Um, thanks,” Keith mumbled. In his ear, Lance’s voice told him, _“Don’t wipe your hand.”_

“ _He wasn’t trying to wipe his hand_ ,” Hunk’s voice said.

 _“It’s Keith, he’s one hundred percent the type of person who wipes off kisses_.” Surely the point was moot anyway, Keith thought, as his hand was still trapped in Olren’s grasp, but he couldn’t say anything to the others without raising some brows.

“ _Return the compliment, Keith,_ ” Allura’s voice piped up.

“You look lovely too,” Keith said.

“ _Well, use a different word, don’t just repeat his._ ”

Keith fought back an annoyed wince before amending, “I mean, you look, um… radiant.”

Lance barked out a laugh, but Keith was saved from having to figure out what was so funny about his word choice by the fact that Olren seemed to take the remark in stride, smiling brightly before adjusting his grip on Keith’s hand so that their arms were at their sides, fingers intertwined. Lance had been right - Keith _did_ want to wipe his hand off. There was a cold stickiness left on the skin where Olren had kissed it, although he didn’t know whether the lips had actually left that much residue, or if it was just his imagination.

“Come along,” Olren said, giving Keith’s hand a little tug as he turned toward the hall leading away from the foyer. “I’ve had the staff cook up some personal favorite dishes of mine. I’m sure you’ll love them. I only wanted the very best for a paladin of Voltron.”

“Right,” Keith said. Shiro was making some sort of comment in his ear as Olren dragged him along, saying it was a good thing they’d practiced the hand-holding the day before. Really, Keith thought, the practice hadn’t done much. Holding hands with Olren was much weirder; at least he actually _knew_ Coran.

But Olren seemed keen on it, so Keith tried to imagine that the hand in his was a friend’s, tried to picture it as Shiro’s or Pidge’s or Hunk’s, and it seemed he was successful enough at imagining that it managed to get him through the walk to the private dining room.

Again, the door was flanked by guards who opened the doors for them, and there were more stationed inside; Keith wondered idly if the dining room was guarded like that all the time, or if this was just for him. Either way, the omnipresent guards were a little unnerving, and Keith was glad that the golden visors on their helmets made it a bit easier to pretend they weren’t watching him the whole time.

A small circular table, big enough only for two, sat in the middle of the room, and one of the guards pulled Keith’s chair out for him as he and Olren approached. Keith took his seat, peering around the room. A chandelier to match the ones in the banquet hall hung over the table, and its light danced off the decorations on the walls, which mostly consisted of elaborate tapestries. The table itself was just as opulent despite its small size, its legs carved into intricate patterns and its surface polished to a sheen. Olren appeared to have brought out the Yuipran equivalent of fine china as well, since the crystal-like, jewel-edged tableware was much fancier than the ones that had been set out for the dinner they’d attended before.

Olren began launching into descriptions of the foods as Keith helped himself to small servings of each. Right now, his nerves being what they were, he couldn’t enjoy the flavor of any of them - they all might as well have been tasteless to him, like he was sitting here eating paper or cotton balls - but sampling them gave him an excuse to not talk for now, so he pressed on.

 _“Ohohoh, man, that looks good,_ ” Hunk said as Keith started cutting into the main dish. _“Does it taste as good as it looks?”_

“This is very tasty, your majesty,” Keith said, interrupting Olren’s chatter about how well the beverage he’d picked complemented the vegetable dish. He couldn’t actually tell right now, but at least the food did smell good, so that hopefully translated to taste as well.

“Why, thank you,” Olren said, seeming unfazed by the interruption. “I’ll pass along the compliments to the kitchen staff.”

 _“Ask him if he can give you the recipe,”_ said Hunk.

Keith did so, and Olren laughed lightly. “Tell you what, I’ll go ahead and throw the recipe in as one of the perks of our upcoming alliance if this evening goes well.”

“Oh. Uh - ”

“So you enjoy cooking, Keith?”

Keith shrugged. “I mean, I cook, but more out of necessity than enjoyment. One of my teammates is more into cooking, though.”

 _“Careful not to mumble, Keith,”_ said Shiro. “ _Speak up.”_

Keith cleared his throat before resuming in a louder voice. “Um, do you cook?”

 _“Don’t just repeat him,”_ Allura said.

“Oh, stars, no,” Olren said. “Haven’t the time to learn a chore of the sort. It isn’t a necessity for me, what with the chefs we keep in our employ. Some of the top cuisiniers in all of Yuipra can be found right in my palace’s kitchen, so no contribution I’d make to the meals would even be worth the time and effort. You could say I’m more a patron of the arts than an artist.”

 _“Ask him what his hobbies are,”_ Coran said. _“You’ve got a good opening for that one.”_

“So, uh, you don’t cook,” said Keith. “What do you do? In your spare time, I mean.”

“Ah, the list of what I don’t do would be shorter,” Olren replied. “I’ve trained in many athletic disciplines and I’ve always considered myself to be a lifelong scholar. The palace’s library contains quite the impressive collection, and it’s befitting of a king to be well-versed in as many fields as he is able, yes? So I am. In sciences, history, the arts. I travel extensively, of course, my rapport with my subjects and my allies is of great importance to me, and I have done quite well in that regard. My royal family line is long-beloved by the populace, and I strive to ensure the reverence is not misplaced.”

 _“This guy’s a real piece of work, isn’t he,”_ Pidge muttered.

 _“Now, now, Pidge,”_ said Coran. _“Expounding on one’s positive qualities is hardly unusual behavior for a first date.”_

_“If you say so.”_

“Still,” Olren continued, and Keith tried to block out the voices in his earpiece and return his attention to the one across the table. “I was perfectly serious when I said I was a patron of the arts. You will find no more ardent theater-goer in my domain than myself, and I really must show you my private art collection at some point. Or the palace gardens, it would be a lovely night for them.”

He leaned forward, bringing his eyes to level with Keith. “I am a great admirer of beauty, you see, and it is a passion of mine to find beauty in the world and make it my own. In all its many forms. Whether it be a painting on my wall or a flower in my garden. A jewel on my crown - “ He reached out suddenly, cold fingertips grazing Keith’s cheek as he tucked a lock of the latter’s hair behind his ear. “ - Or a companion at my side.”

 _“Christ, that’s a hell of a line,”_ said Lance. _“You think he rehearsed that? I bet he rehearsed it.”_

“Um,” said Keith. “That’s, uh - that’s - ”

 _“Say, erm, that you’re honored he sees you that way,”_ Allura said. _“He was complimenting you.”_

“Right,” Keith said. “I’m honored you, um, see me that way.”

“You should be,” Olren said. “That’s not something I’d say of just anyone.”

His stare was growing more intense by the second, and Keith could feel the sweat growing along his hairline. He coughed into his sleeve, using it as an excuse to lean away from him. “So,” he said loudly. “Um, Allura says Yuipra and Altea go way back, huh? What’s, uh - what’s - tell me about that.”

 _“Did we not go over segues and subject changes with him yesterday?”_ Shiro asked. _“I thought we did.”_

Keith repeated the ‘smile with your eyes’ mantra to himself to keep from scowling. Sure, that had been clumsy, but Olren didn’t seem to care. The king was already launching into a history lecture about Yuipra’s past alliances and the interplanetary relations forged by past kings and queens. It was all in one ear and out the other for Keith, but it was keeping Olren busy and had gotten him to cool it with that weird stare, so he was counting it as a win.

He managed to finish off the main course by the time Olren was winding down, having reached the most recent generation of rulers in his exhaustive recounting of the royal lineage. “Of course, the trade agreement with Thuabos is one that would doubtless be considered the most beneficial to our energy sector in all of Yuipran history. Still, King Arihan’s diplomacy and positive relations with their chancellor were instrumental in that deal, and I know that more than one advisor had been worried that it may falter after I took the throne.” He let out a long sigh, and brought a hand to his chest. “I’m sure your princess would more than understand - it’s not easy, losing a father and a king all at once. The burden placed upon my shoulders as ruler in these past decaphoebs is a heavy one.”

 _“Offer your condolences, Keith,”_ said Allura. _“He’s pushing for sympathy.”_

Well, obviously. Keith wasn’t the best at reading people, sure, but even he could pick up on melodrama. “I’m very sorry for your loss.”

 _“Why would he bring that up in the middle of a first date?”_ said Pidge. _“Is that normal?”_

 _“Maybe he’s angling for, like, comfort cuddles or something,”_ said Hunk.

“Thank you,” Olren said. He dabbed lightly at his eyes with his fingertips before opening them again. “I apologize, if I get too personal too soon. But, to that end, I do believe that openness is a cornerstone of interpersonal relations. Our struggles, our strengths - they need not be kept secret.” He folded his hands on the table, tilting his chin toward Keith. “Don’t you agree?”

“Yeah,” Keith said. “Yeah, sure.”

Olren smiled. “I thought so. You’re a delightful confidante, Keith. A wonderful listener. That is something that you can consider a strength of yourself and Voltron - your willingness to let others place their burdens before you.”

“Uh-huh,” Keith said with a nod. “Yeah, we’re all - we’re very good listeners.”

 _“Are we including Lance in that assessment?”_ asked Pidge.

 _“What?”_ said Lance.

Shiro shushed him as Olren went on. “Of course, I do not want to give you an inaccurate impression of me and my capabilities. Yuipra is still a force to be reckoned with under my leadership. I see no reason why a soft heart and strong hand should be mutually exclusive. The same can be said of Voltron, can’t it? Its presence is a beacon of hope, but also a show of force. Of power.”

“That’s, um - yeah, I suppose so.”

Olren nodded. “Yuipra would fit well into your coalition. We do not possess the military strength of some of your allies, no, but we are powerful in other ways. We would not have lasted as long as we have otherwise. We’re resolute. I never yield, Keith, never waver. When there is something my kingdom needs, I go after it. I pull out all stops to get what I want, and I persevere no matter the resistance.” He paused to scoop a bite of food into his mouth, the last on his plate, and set his fork down. “Diligence is the precursor to endurance, Keith. Giving up is never an option.”

“I see,” Keith said slowly.

 _“Okay, come on,”_ Pidge said. _“There’s no way this is normal first date conversation.”_

 _“Well,”_ said Shiro, _“A ‘date’ with a king and potential war ally is probably pretty different from a ‘normal’ first date.”_

 _“Still,”_ said Hunk. _“Just listening to him is exhausting.”_

 _“Don’t pause so long, Keith,”_ said Allura. _“Humor him, say you agree.”_

“Right,” said Keith. “That - that makes sense. A good, uh, good way to look at things.”

“I had a feeling you’d agree,” Olren said.

“Uh-huh. Though, uh, you know, the coalition is more of - ”

He dropped his sentence and his fork at the same time, startling at the sudden sensation of a hand on his knee. Olren showed no change in his expression, still giving him that little sharp-eyed smile he’d held throughout the dinner, but his hands, no longer occupied with the food, were now out of sight, and even as their gazes met, Keith could feel the hand moving back and forth over his knee, as if Olren was petting it.

 _“Keith?”_ Hunk said. _“Did our audio cut out?”_

“The coalition is what?” Olren asked lightly.

“Um,” Keith said. He squirmed in his seat, moving against the back of the chair, but the hand followed, the thumb now rubbing little circles into his thigh. “It, uh, it’s more - it’s - you know, there’s um, it’s numbers, and, um - and resources for - for, uh - ”

 _“Keith, you oughtn’t fidget like that,”_ Allura’s voice chided in his ear. _“What’s going on?”_

 _“You okay, man?”_ Hunk asked.

Right. Of course, the others would have no way of knowing what was going on under the table, and he couldn’t very well explain it to them. He took a deep breath through his nose and tried to hold his leg still, gritting his teeth when Olren seemed to interpret this as an invitation to slide his hand even further up his thigh, his fingertips brushing against the fabric of the too-thin pants and feeling like insect legs crawling along his skin.

“Your coalition sounds like a perfect fit for Yuipra,” Olren said, replying as if Keith had given him a perfectly coherent answer. “And speaking of - ”

Fingers pinched the skin of his thigh, and without thinking Keith shot up out of his seat, gripping the edge of the table as firmly as if it were the only thing keeping him from falling into an abyss. Olren somehow appeared entirely unfazed by this, maintaining his little smile even now. “Is something wrong, Keith?”

“N-no,” Keith stuttered, even as the voices in his earpiece asked the same question. “No, I, uh - it’s getting cramped, in here. Just wanted to get up.”

“Ah. I see.”

 _“Er, perhaps suggest an alternate activity, Keith?”_ said Coran.

“You could, uh, show me that art collection or garden or something,” Keith said. That would be good. Something that involved standing and walking, something where the camera could catch it if Olren started getting handsy, and the others could tell him what to do about it.

“All right,” Olren said. “If you’d like. Are you sure you don’t want to wait for our dessert course? I’ve selected some sweets for the evening that are positively decadent.”

Keith shook his head. “No thanks, I’m - I’m full.”

“And eager, it seems,” Olren said with a smirk. “Very well, Keith. I’ll show you to the gardens; it’s a beautiful season for them, some lovely specimens blooming.” He rose from the table too, and as he did, the guards on standby opened the door to admit a group of servants who quickly swept in to clear the table. “Come,” he said, holding out the crook of his arm.

 _“Hold him by the arm, just above the elbow,”_ Shiro said. _“Wrap the hand around, but keep the grip light.”_

Keith obliged, and Olren led the way out of the dining room. Keith still would have preferred to not be holding onto Olren at all, but this beat holding his hand, so it wasn’t so bad to endure as they strode through the palace’s corridors and out into the courtyard.

“It’s not too chilly out for you, is it?” Olren asked.

“Huh?” Keith said. “Uh, no?”

“You can feel free to come closer, if you get cold.”

Someone, probably Lance, wolf-whistled into his earpiece, and Keith made a mental note to kick him in the shin when he got back to the Castle. “I’m fine, thanks.”

“If you’re sure.” They had reached a tall gate at the other end of the courtyard, one that was once again flanked by two of those ubiquitous guards who opened the gate and bowed them through. Keith made to drop his hand from the king’s arm, but just as he was about to, Olren brought his other hand up, lightly draping it over Keith’s as they walked. Looked like he was stuck for now.

The garden was nice, Keith supposed. The plants on display were lush and colorful, and they’d arrived during sunset, which left the sky on this planet - or at least in this area of it - a bold shade of violet that was warmed by the orange glow of the lamps placed at intervals throughout the stone walkways.

The structure reminded him a bit of the botanical gardens that his class had visited on a field trip back in middle school, with its stone pathways and the tidy arrangement of the plants, so perhaps he could pretend that this was just a school field trip rather than a date, and perhaps that would help with the mild nausea that had been plaguing him since entering the palace.

Of course, on that field trip, two of his classmates had tried to hold his head under the water in a fountain and gotten all three of them sent back to the bus for half the day, but there didn’t seem to be any fountains in this garden, so he was probably safe from that at least.

Olren had started talking without Keith realizing, so he hastened to try to focus. Fortunately Olren didn’t seem to realize that Keith had zoned out - he often didn’t, Keith was beginning to learn - and was totally preoccupied with pointing out his own favorite plants and describing whatever he knew about them.

 _“Participate in the conversation,”_ Allura said. _“Find something you like, point it out.”_

“You know, these lampposts are really pretty,” Keith said, gesturing to one that had been carved to look like an intricate series of stone vines was wrapped around it.

 _“Pick a_ plant, _Keith, you’re in a garden,”_ Allura said, and Keith could practically hear her rolling her eyes.

“Oh, and, uh, these - these flowers here,” Keith said, pointing toward a bed of red and orange flowers with particularly wide petals.

Olren grinned. “You like these?” He finally let go of Keith’s hand, and Keith, relieved, dropped his arm to the side as Olren bent down toward the flowers. He plucked one, and stood up again, and held it out to Keith. “Go ahead,” he said. Keith gingerly accepted the flower. “Smell it,” Olren added.

He brought the flower to the nose and gave it a sniff. It smelled vaguely like a mix of apples and laundry detergent. Nothing to write home about, but Olren was watching him eagerly, so Keith gave him a stiff smile and nod.

“It’s good, isn’t it?” said Olren.

“Uh-huh.”

“I’m glad you picked that one. Its pollen is an aphrodisiac, you know.”

Immediately Keith dropped the flower, while in his ear Pidge made a retching sound. _“Ew, dude, what the fuck?”_ she said.

 _“You know, I believe we grow a variety of that flower in our herbatorium,”_ Coran said. _“Its roots can soothe burns. I hadn’t been aware of this property, though.”_

 _“Everything’s an aphrodisiac if you’re kinky enough,”_ said Lance.

Olren, meanwhile, was laughing as he leaned over to pick the flower back up. “Well,” he said, “It is to Yuiprans, anyway. I don’t know that the effect is universal.” Grinning, he reached up and put the flower under Keith’s nose again, tickling at it with the petals, and Keith couldn’t help but take a step back. The king just laughed again. “You oughtn’t be so nervous, paladin Keith,” he said, letting the flower fall back to the ground. “It’s probably so much harder to enjoy the evening that way.”

“I’m - I’m not nervous,” Keith stammered.

Olren clicked his tongue and shook his head, still smiling. “No need to try to pretend. I find it flattering, really. That you’re so anxious for things to go well between us. That I excite you, scare you. Take your breath away. Your hands are shaking, you know.” Suddenly his hand was laid flat against Keith’s chest. “Your heart’s pounding. You feel a flurry, don’t you? A spark?”

“Uh…” was the only sound Keith could manage.

The hand on his chest moved to his chin, tilting his head back slowly as Olren stared at his face, eyes like spears piercing his own. “You’re very beautiful, you know,” he said softly.

And before Keith could say a word in protest, Olren had moved in for a kiss.

He was too stunned to do anything but stand there and let it happen. In his earpiece he could hear his team, letting out a mix of congratulations that he was pulling this off, and disgusted groans. He wasn’t sure whose voice was whose, but he himself would be firmly in the latter category if he could. And with the camera’s positioning, the others didn’t have to watch the actual kiss go down.

There would probably be more sounds of disgust if they could, Keith figured as the kiss continued, Olren’s saliva feeling like slush against the skin around Keith’s lips. He tried to start pulling his face away, but Olren tightened his grip on his chin and held him in place, prying Keith’s lips apart as his tongue poked into his mouth. It was bizarrely cool and slick as it joined the kiss. Like there was a slug writhing around in his mouth. Olren began letting out little grunts of delight, while it was all Keith could do not to gag.

 _“Is he ever gonna stop for breath?”_ Pidge said.

 _“God, I did not sign up for listening to Keith have a makeout session,”_ said Lance. _“There a fast-forward button on this thing?”_

 _“Er, Keith?”_ Allura said. _“You… you can pull away, if you need to…”_

Gratefully Keith took her up on her offer, although it took a couple of tugs to get Olren to finally break the kiss and let Keith stumble back. Olren was quick to catch him with an arm on his back, and that sharp grin returned as he straightened Keith up. “Delectable,” he said. “Utterly delectable. You’re quite the treat, paladin Keith.”

“Yeah, okay,” Keith managed to grunt out. “So, um, how - how much longer do you, um, do you have planned? For tonight?”

 _“Keith, don’t ask that!”_ Shiro said. _“Don’t make it obvious you want to leave!”_

Olren raised a brow. “You’re so keen already to move on to the end of the evening?”

“Well, you know.” Keith shrugged, ignoring Shiro’s groan in his ear.

Thankfully, Olren didn’t seem offended. In fact, his smile seemed to widen as he nodded. “Certainly,” he said. “I admit, I do usually like a little more time with my companions first, but tonight has been… well, simply lovely, to say the least. I’m willing to make an exception.” He held out his arm. “Come along. We can adjourn to my private chambers ahead of schedule, and consummate our alliance now.”

Keith stood in shocked silence, not quite sure if he’d heard right. The same must have happened with his teammates back at the castle, since there was a pause before Lance hesitantly spoke. _“I’m sorry, did he - did he just say - ?”_

 _“Head out of the gutter, Lance,”_ said Shiro. _“In business, ‘consummate’ just means to finalize something, make it official.”_

_“But why would they need to go to his ‘private chambers’ for that?”_

_“Maybe, er,”_ said Allura. _“Maybe he meant a private office?”_

Meanwhile Olren was still staring at Keith, his arm still held out invitingly. Cautiously, Keith took a step back before asking, “Um, when - when you say ‘consummate’, do - do you mean, um…?”

“Physically,” Olren said. “Of course.” He laughed lightly as the sounds of his teams’ indignation echoed in Keith’s earpiece. “You’re still a little nervous, aren’t you?” He stepped toward Keith, a hand coming up to take him by the shoulder. “There’s no need to be. I can be gentle. At first.” He winked, and Keith’s stomach clenched.

 _“Is he fucking serious?!”_ said Pidge. _“What the hell?!”_

 _“Shit, is he - he’s actually telling Keith to - ”_ Lance said.

 _“It doesn’t matter what he’s telling Keith to do, he’s not gonna fucking do it!”_ Pidge snapped.

She was right. Black Paladin or not, alliance or not, this was too much. This was a line he couldn’t cross. “Look, um,” Keith said, shrugging Olren’s hand off of his shoulder. “I’m, uh, I’m flattered and all, really, but - ”

“I’ve got ways we can settle those nervous of yours,” Olren said. “Aromatherapy is a wonder, you know. Lotions, candles.”

 _“Ew, ew, ew,”_ Hunk said. _“That’s - this is so sleazy -_ ”

 _“Keith?”_ said Coran. _“Keith, you don’t have to go that far.”_

 _“Say you’re feeling ill,”_ said Allura.

“I’m actually feeling, um, kinda sick,” Keith said. “Probably shouldn’t, uh - ”

“So suddenly?” Olren asked. His hand was back, this time snaking around Keith’s back and pulling him close. “Mm, I think the only illness here is shyness. I happen to know a marvelous cure.”

“Look, I mean it, I - ”

“It’s necessary, you know, for a true alliance. That vulnerability, that trust. The closeness.”

“I don’t think - ”

 _“Say you’re engaged to another,”_ Allura suggested, her voice growing steadily more frantic. _“Or, say that you’re - ”_

 _“No, forget diplomacy,”_ Pidge said. _“Tell him to fuck off, and RUN!”_

Olren was leaning closer, his other hand coming up to card his fingers into Keith’s hair. Swallowing down his fear, Keith yanked away, his own hands up to push back from the king with a grunt of, “Get _off_ me!”

Olren released him, frowning as Keith stumbled back. Keith tried his best to straighten on his gelatin-like legs, his heart beating like a sledgehammer against his throat. “I’m not - I don’t - no,” Keith panted. “No.”

His heart hammered in his throat as Olren stared at him, his perpetual smile gone for the first time all evening. “I see…” he said slowly. “Perhaps you can rejoin me tomorrow evening, then. It would give you some time to grow more… amenable, before we finalize our alliance.”

Keith shook his head. “I’m not going to ‘finalize’ anything with you. Not if _that’s_ what you were aiming for.”

Something flashed across Olren’s face, something Keith couldn’t quite read, before the king said, “I’m afraid I don’t quite understand. Did you not enjoy our evening together? Do you find me so unappealing that partnering with me upsets you so? You’re shaking again, Keith.”

“Hey, I didn’t - it’s not about that. That isn’t something I do. Ever. With anyone.”

“No?” Olren said, quirking a brow.

“No,” Keith repeated.

“Mm.” Olren crossed his arms, and somehow he seemed to be taller than Keith had remembered him being, the shadow cast on the stone walkway from the nearest lamp looming over Keith like a storm cloud. “That does present a difficulty, doesn’t it? I don’t much like to ally with those I cannot fully trust to commit fully.”

 _“Oh god, this is creepy,”_ Pidge whispered. _“This is so, so creepy.”_

 _“We - we need to do something,”_ said Hunk. _“Guys?”_

 _“Is this how you guys made your old alliance with Yuipra way back when?”_ Lance asked.

 _“No, of course not,”_ Allura said. _“This is - stars, he cannot possibly think - ”_

 _“Keith,”_ said Shiro. _“Get out of there. We don’t need an alliance_ that _badly.”_

Keith took a deep breath. “Okay, look, um, clearly - clearly there was a, um, a misunderstanding, here, about what tonight was about. So I’m - I’m gonna just - ”

Cautiously he made to step around him, but Olren slid effortlessly into his path, grabbing his shoulder and spinning him back to face him. Keith winced at the grip; it was harder than any other time Olren had put a hand on him this evening. “I can’t help but wonder, paladin,” Olren said, his voice chilly in its steadiness. “What were you expecting tonight to be about?”

“Um.” Keith blinked. “Um, the alliance. You joining the Coalition.”

“And you still thought that, right up until moments ago, when you decided that you did not wish to accompany me to bed. Is that correct?”

“Uh…”

“Was I unclear in my intentions, Keith? I specifically asked you here as my date. I laid out the best dinner at the finest table I had to offer so that I could court you. I brought you out here to be with me beneath the moonlight. I took your hand, and you did not pull away.” With his free hand, Olren took Keith’s hand, intertwining the fingers and giving it a squeeze. “I kissed you, and you kissed me back.” He leaned in, close enough that Keith could feel his breath on his skin as steely eyes bore into his own. “That was not about the coalition, Keith. That was about you, and about me.”

“Okay, yeah, but I - I didn’t think - ” He tried to pull his hand out of Olren’s grasp, but the king held firm. “I didn’t think you wanted to go that far.”

“Things always go that far, eventually,” Olren said. “Why did you think we wouldn’t, Keith? When you decided to accompany me tonight, did you not consider where we might take our affections?”

“Look, those are _your_ affections, okay?!” Keith growled. _“You’re_ the one who wanted to make this a date! All we wanted was an alliance!”

Olren froze, eyes widening, and Keith felt his nails start digging into his arm where he held him.

 _“Uh, Keith…”_ Shiro said uncertainly. _“Maybe don’t - ”_

“I think I understand now,” Olren said. “All this time, all evening, you’ve been making a fool of me.”

Keith shook his head hastily. “No, listen, it - ”

“You were here only for my resources, my services to Voltron. Were willing to take the offering from me and leave me in the dust.”

Keith managed to yank his arm free of Olren’s grip, and made to jump back, but Olren kept a hold of his hand and pulled him back in, his other hand grabbing the fabric of Keith’s collar instead. “I don’t like being _used_ , Keith,” he snarled, and his voice had a raspiness, an iciness, that hadn’t been there before. “I don’t like people playing with my heart, toying with me, breaking my heart for their own gain.”

“It’s - it’s not like that!” Keith gasped out. He reached up a hand to claw at Olren’s where it grasped his collar, trying to loosen the hold that was starting to squeeze against his windpipe. “I only wanted - ”

“I know what you wanted!” Olren said, giving Keith a forceful shake. “You wanted to take Yuipra’s riches and my dignity with it, and leave nothing in return. Well, Keith, I wanted something too, tonight. And like I’ve told you: I always get what I want.”

Finally Keith gave up on trying to pry Olren’s hand loose. Instead, he balled his own into a fist, and with all the force he could muster, aimed a blow toward the king’s face. The punch landed with a sickening crack, and in his shock Olren released him.

The moment he turned around to run, though, he was grabbed again, both arms in bruising grips that didn’t belong to Olren. A glance down showed golden gauntlets wrapped around his triceps, and too late he remembered the guards that were stationed everywhere in this palace. Two were holding him, and he thought he could hear a third behind him.

His team was shouting something, but he couldn’t discern the words. It all became a buzz to him as he thrashed in the guards’ grips, trying to get away. He heard a grunt as he elbowed one, and he flailed his legs and managed to land a kick with his heel against the other’s greave, before something was slammed against the back of his knee and pain radiated up and down his leg. The other was hit right after, and he was forced to the ground on his knees, his arms wrenched up behind his back with nearly enough force to pull his shoulders out of their sockets, one hand digging into his scalp to grab him by the hair and pull his head back, stretching out his neck as he panted for breath.

Olren stood before him, regal as ever, dabbing the back of his hand against his face where deep green Yuipran blood was trickling from his nose. “Not a wise move,” he said. “Assaulting a king in his own palace. You can’t have thought I would give up that easily.”

He stepped forward, kneeling down to lean in toward Keith’s face, and stretched a hand out to brush the back of his fingers against his cheek. “Even in your rage, still so beautiful,” he said softly. “A pity you had to make things difficult like this.”

His hand moved to take Keith’s chin, squeezing his jaw in an iron grip. Keith could feel the sharp nails break the skin, warm blood droplets beginning to well beneath the claws. “We’re going to form that alliance, Keith,” Olren said. “And we’re going to do it my way.”


	5. Chapter 5

For the first few moments after Olren straightened up from the ground, told the guards holding Keith to “prepare” him, and turned to sweep out of the garden, the guards hauling Keith to his feet to follow, he was numb. His head was spinning with too many thoughts, too much terror, to properly grasp onto any single thread, and the world around him seemed distant, unreal. The only thing coming more into focus was the sounds in his earpiece, the voices of his teammates that sounded almost as horrified as he felt. They all ran together in his ear, and he couldn’t distinguish one speaker from the other.

_“Keith, Keith it’s okay, it’s going to be okay - ”_

_“Shiro, get in Red with me, it’s faster!”_

_“Holy shit, holy shit, holy - ”_

_“We’re on our way, just hold on!”_

As he was led out of the garden and into the courtyard, Keith stumbled over his feet, nearly falling to the ground in his daze if weren’t for the guards on either side of him yanking him back upright and the one behind him giving him a rough shove and grunting, “Move.”

Somehow, that seemed to bring him back into focus, into full awareness of what was happening, what was about to happen. And he couldn’t let it. He just couldn’t. His team had been giving him reassurances, it seemed like they were on their way, but they’d have to make the trip down here and get into the palace and through the guards… by the time they reached him, he might be - Olren might already have -

He couldn’t wait for them. He had to get out of there now.

He let out a sudden yell, swinging his legs forward and bringing the heels back with all the strength he had in him. And either the blow was strong enough or he had sufficiently managed to take the guards by surprise, because their holds loosened. Not enough to drop him yet, but enough for him to yank his arms out of their grasp as he propelled himself off the guard behind him and leaped forward, sprawling across the stonework of the courtyard.

Panting, he scrambled to his feet, diving out of the way just in time before one of the guards snatched his ankle and running toward the opposite entryway. Olren had already gone in ahead of them, so it was a risk going back into the palace, but it was certainly better than going back into the guards’ hands, and he knew the way back to the main entry. If he was just fast enough, if he could just dodge anyone who tried to make a grab for him, he could make it.

On leaden legs he flew into the oncoming corridor, the clanking of the guards’ armor close behind him, shouting something, probably ordering him to stop, but it was drowned out both by the pounding of adrenaline, and Coran and Allura in his ear frantically assuring him that the others were on their way.

Keith kept his pace up until the next corner, where he was brought to a sudden and unceremonious halt when a quarterstaff came swinging into his gut. With a choked grunt, he doubled over, eyes watering at the form of yet another guard standing before him. This one must have been patrolling the halls, must have heard the commotion. Keith tried to lurch around him, but the guard was fast, already delivering another blow, this time into his chest, sending Keith stumbling backward and right into the metal armor of the guards who’d been pursuing him.

_“Keith, are you all right?!”_ Allura cried.

He tried to think of a way to reassure her that he was - sure, he could feel some fantastic bruises blossoming across his throbbing torso, but that was nowhere near as bad as what the king had in store - but he didn’t have time to, what with the guards lifting him off his feet from under his arms, roughly turning him back around. He struggled in their hold, legs flailing, but the guards were better at bracing themselves for it this time after his last near escape.

“Let go of me!” Keith shouted, fruitlessly trying to pull away. “Let me _go!”_

“You’re only making things difficult for yourself, paladin,” one of the guards said. “First disrespecting our king, now insisting on fighting us…”

Coran let out a sound of indignation. _“He_ deserves _to be disrespected, you quiznakking son of a - ”_

Keith jerked in the guards’ hold again, and one of them responded by shoving Keith against the nearest wall with a grunt. Keith growled, trying and failing to pull himself away from the wall, and aimed to bite at the gloved hand holding his shoulder in place.

A guard took a fistful of his hair and slammed his head sideways into the wall, and Keith let out a cry as his ear hit brick and his earpiece suddenly blared a high-pitched whine, like microphone feedback right up against his eardrum. Another slam, and with a pop, the earpiece went dead, the panic-stricken voices of the Alteans suddenly replaced with a terrifying silence.

His vision swam as he was pulled away from the wall, and he could feel the warm sensation of blood starting to trickle down from where his head had been hit. The guards tightened their grip as they started moving him down the hall again, lifting him between two of them so that his toes barely grazed the floor. Keith continued to struggle, but now more as a show than an actual effort to break free; it didn’t look as though it would do him any good to keep trying, but he had to keep up the pretense, had to still seem like he was fighting back.

Even if that fire was burnt out, smothered by the silence in his head where the voices of his teammates were supposed to be and by the indignity of everything he’d been through that evening and that still was yet to come.

The throbbing from his head injury made it difficult to concentrate on the world around him as he was dragged through corridors and stairwells, and the end came abruptly when they reached the polished door of the king’s bedchamber. Yet another guard stood at attention outside it, and the guard behind Keith muttered something to him as they entered. The former nodded and started down the hall and out of Keith’s view as he was carted toward the bed.

The bed itself was fairly large, the equivalent of a king-sized mattress back on Earth - fittingly, considering its occupant here - with a high canopy and wrought metal frame that spiraled into intricate patterns where the headboard would typically be. The duvet on top was textured like silk, Keith discovered as two of the guards slammed him onto the bed on his back, holding his arms in place even as he kicked out and arched his back. His head, after one of the guards slammed it back into the metal frame with a grunted order to stop kicking, sank easily into the plump, soft pillow.

Under any other circumstances, this bed would have been the coziest thing Keith had ever slept on. Now, the idea of feeling even the slightest hint of comfort in this plushiness was a sickening thought.

Only moments after he’d been pressed onto the bed, the guard who’d been outside the door returned, something dangling between his hands. He passed the object to one of the other guards, and Keith got a glimpse of it - a set of manacles, gold like so much else in this godforsaken palace, with thick cuffs and a short but sturdy length of chain between them - before it was being snapped onto his wrist. The guard threaded the chain through one of the iron spirals on the headboard, grabbed Keith’s free arm in a bone-crushing grasp when the latter attempted to throw a punch, and locked the other cuff into place.

Keith pulled away, tried to tug at the chain, but there was no give in it at all. “You needn’t bother,” one of the guards said. “Those things never break.”

Never…

A sinking feeling flooded the pit of his stomach. The guards had used these manacles before. They needed no further instruction when Olren told them to prepare him. The king had spoken of how this was necessary for a “true” alliance, had taken for granted that it was coming.

He had done this before. He had been prepared, tonight, for the possibility of doing it again. For all Keith knew, he was the latest in a line of victims that could have started back when Olren first took the throne.

Could they have known this, going in? Could they have found out what Olren was truly like, talked with other planets and organizations that Yuipra was allied with and realized how “alliances” were made here? If they had done that, if they hadn’t just gone on the blind faith that Yuipra was still the same upstanding planet that it was thousands of years ago, they could have done something. They could have stopped this.

Now, it was too late.

Despite the obvious inefficacy of the action, Keith kept yanking at the cuffs, pulling himself as far forward as he could go, no doubt leaving a mess of bruises on his wrists as he did. Maybe, he reasoned, if he just dislocated the thumb, tore some of the skin, he’d be able to get one of them off. After that, he could perhaps use the chain as a weapon, fight the guards off before making a break for it.

He had made no progress, though, by the time the guards held down his ankles and pulled his shoes from his feet. They were the flimsy dress shoes Coran had given him to go with his outfit rather than his trusty boots, so they slipped off with ease. He didn’t think too much of it, until the cold hands of one of the guards moved higher, trailing along his legs and under the hem of the tunic, grabbing his waistband.

Immediately he let out a cry, flailing in the guards’ grasps as hard as he could. He managed to free one leg, and with his heel caught one of them in the chin. It was a victory, if a small one, but it didn’t last long, as two of the guards grabbed the offending leg with both hands. “We told you,” one growled. “To stop kicking.”

There was a snap, and Keith had to bite his lip to keep them from getting the satisfaction of hearing him keen in pain as they dropped his now-broken ankle back onto the bed. Their hands moved back up once more, but were interrupted again, this time by the opening of a door off to the side.

“You are dismissed,” Olren’s voice said. “I can take it from here.”

As one the guards released their hold on him and moved away, beating a retreat out the way they came, and Keith turned to see the king approaching. Apparently the reason he’d gone ahead was to give himself time to remove his many gaudy accessories. This was Keith’s first time seeing him without his crown, or the jewels he wore around his neck and wrists. The layers of robes and capes were gone too, replaced by a simple dressing gown. In contrast to his usual appearance, he seemed positively gaunt now, the eerie elongation of his limbs more starkly pronounced.

His sinister smile, though, was just the same as ever as he swept toward the bed and grinned down at Keith. “Hello, paladin Keith,” he said. “I trust you’ve made yourself comfortable?”

“You’re a fucking monster,” Keith snarled in reply.

Olren just scoffed as he sat down on the bed. “I’d have to disagree with you there. All this evening, I have been nothing but good to you. I’ve been honest and open, I’ve lavished you in affection and offered you the wealth of my kingdom. You, on the other hand, have been duplicitous, manipulative, and above all, cowardly. Which one of us is the monster, Keith?”

With an exasperated-sounding sigh, he rolled further onto the bed, and pressed his hands onto Keith chest as he straddled him, one knee outside either hip, and leaned in toward his face. “You’re lucky, you know, that I’m so good at taming monsters.”

Keith growled wordlessly and lurched again, trying to arch himself up and kick out with his good leg, but Olren simply laughed. “Now, now, don’t get ahead of me, Keith. Though your enthusiasm is admirable, I prefer to work up to the action. Admire the toy before I play with it.” His hands trailed up, fingers coming to rest at Keith’s collar. Keith froze, and for a moment, he was certain that Olren had spotted the tiny microphone mounted against the stitched pattern. But instead, Olren reached for the button at the side, over the shoulder, and began unzipping the garment. Keith wasn’t sure which was worse.

Once the top was fully unzipped, Olren yanked at the material, tearing the sleek fabric along the seams of the sleeves and tossing it aside, leaving Keith’s chest bare. It rose and fell along with Keith’s trembling breaths, and he shuddered as a cold finger trailed up the breastbone. “Beautiful,” Olren said. “Strapping. All that hard work as a paladin, it keeps you fit, doesn’t it.”

“Fuck you,” Keith snapped.

“You can,” Olren said. “Soon. First, if you don’t mind…” His fingers brushed across Keith’s chest. “It’s like untrodden snow, isn’t it? So tempting, to leave a mark.”

Keith closed his eyes and held back a whimper as Olren leaned down, pressing his lips to his sternum. The king trailed slimy kisses up his torso, each one feeling like acid on his skin, until he reached the collarbone. At the sharp sting there, Keith gasped and opened his eyes, moving his gaze down in horror. “Did you - did you just bite me?!” he cried.

Olren smiled up at him, and Keith could see red dotted on the tips of a few of his pointed teeth. “I did say earlier that you were delectable. And now I know for certain. Just couldn’t resist.”

He trailed further upward, leaving the spoor of his lips in a path climbing up Keith’s neck a toward his jaw, before digging his hands into the latter’s hair and lifting his head toward him so their eyes were barely an inch apart. “You _are_ irresistible, Keith,” he whispered. “But ever the tease. It’s almost tragic, the way you try to refuse me.” He brushed a finger over Keith’s lips. “In the end, though, I must admit, it only makes you that much more alluring.”

After one more of his sickening smiles, he pulled Keith in, inhaling him into another of those abhorrent kisses. Keith’s face and throat burned as that dreaded tongue snaked its way in again, and when trying to pull back proved useless, he decided if Olren could bite, so could he. He snapped his teeth down onto the tongue as hard as he could.

Olren reeled back with a satisfying yelp, dropping Keith back onto the pillow to bring his hands to his mouth, and when he lowered them, blank-faced, Keith was rewarded by a glimpse of dark green blood smeared across his top finger. He only had a tick to enjoy that moment of triumph, though, as before he even had time to see it coming, Olren delivered a sharp backhand slap to his face, snapping his head to the side and leaving his jaw throbbing.

“Even now,” Olren said, his voice low and cold. “You still insist on putting up a fight.” Slowly, he lifted his hand to wrap the icy fingers around Keith’s throat, and as he brought his face forward, he squeezed, not enough to cut off Keith’s airflow entirely, but enough to prove that he could. “Why do you do this to me, Keith?” he asked as he moved his knee so that it was digging into Keith’s gut. “Why are you so determined to treat me with such contempt? I am taking only what I deserve.” The hand that wasn’t gripping Keith by the neck took his shoulder, and the nails dug into his skin before Olren slowly moved the hand downward, tearing a trail of claw marks in its wake. “To so many, this time with me is an honor, a gift. But you see it as a punishment. Well, it cannot be said of me that I am an unreasonable man. So for your sake - ” He dropped Keith’s neck and moved both hands to the latter’s hips. “ - I’ll get this over with.”

In a single swift motion he flipped Keith over onto his stomach, and his wrists strained against their cuffs as the chain links twisted as far as they could, his arms taut and contorted above his head. Keith couldn’t hold back a yelp in response to the jostling of his injured torso, which, to his fury, elicited another light laugh from Olren. He squirmed as he felt hot breath against the back of his neck, the king’s fingers moving his hair out of the way with delicate motions.

“I know this is your first time,” Olren whispered. “So I’ll be careful about breaking you in. Make it gradual.” He nibbled at Keith’s earlobe, not hard enough to draw blood, but enough to still make Keith retch as the king moved down to kiss his neck.

“Please,” Keith said, and he hated that he was begging, hated that Olren got the pleasure of hearing him break, but nothing else had been working, not the insults or the struggling, and this was the only option that remained, the only chance he had left of getting out of this, however slim that chance may be. “Please, don’t do this…”

“Paladin Keith, you’re crying,” Olren said softly, and he was right. Keith hadn’t even noticed that it had started, but as he blinked against the sting in his eyes, he felt the sticky trails of tear tracks down his cheeks. Olren reached a finger around to Keith’s face and wiped a tear away, then licked the fingertip. “You know - ” He tugged Keith’s head back by the hair, wrenching it around so it was partially facing him. “Your eyes are even prettier this way. It’s remarkable.”

“Please,” Keith repeated, his voice cracking on the word. “You can’t - you know this is wrong. You can’t do - ”

Olren tutted. “Don’t aim to tell me what I cannot do, Keith. Many have tried. They’ve all been wrong.” His hand slithered down Keith’s back, stopping to grasp his waistband, and Keith choked out a sob as he started pulling his pants downward. “Come now, no need to fret. It’s always better when we’re _both_ enjoying ourselves.”

Keith’s only response was another hitched cry, and Olren sighed as he finished removing the pants and tossed them to the floor. “Very well,” he said. “In that case, I do better without the interruption.” He shoved Keith’s head forward, muffling his cries into the pillow even as his whole body shook with distress. Keith could hardly breathe, positioned as he was, and he had to fight hard for air as he heard Olren start removing his own dressing gown and his sobs only sped up.

“Now,” Olren said into his ear, voice low and dark and dangerous. “Time to get star- ”

A abrupt slam cut him off, followed by a bizarrely familiar blast, and suddenly Olren’s chilling grip on him went slack as the king collapsed, his half-naked body draped over Keith’s. Keith froze, at first unwilling to believe it, and Olren didn’t move. Keith managed to twist his head just enough to get a glimpse at the figure on top of him, and saw that the king’s eyes were closed, his body limp, deadweight.

Keith lay flat a moment longer, breath coming in raspy, hiccoughing gasps, before the weight on him was lifted and he was able to turn himself around fully and see what had managed to stop his nightmare in its tracks.

The door to the room had been thrown wide open, and Lance stood in the entryway, his blaster in his hands. Even from this distance Keith could see the way the bayard was trembling in his grip, and the unusual pallor in his face. Beside the bed, Shiro had Olren in his arms, none-too-gently moving him to deposit onto the floor.

Keith’s eyes locked onto Olren’s half-dressed form, and he felt his heartbeat in his throat as he asked, “Is - is he - ?”

“He’s not dead,” Lance said. “I’ve got it set to stun. Regicide probably isn’t a good look for Voltron. But believe me, it was a tough call…” He gulped, his eyes flicking to Keith before pointedly returning to Olren, and Keith suddenly felt all too aware of the position he was currently in, his nakedness, which both Lance and Shiro were carefully avoiding looking at. The humiliation of it all made him want to shrivel up into nothingness.

“There’s still time to change our minds on that one,” Shiro grunted. He moved toward the head of the bed, taking care to keep his eyes off of Keith and instead focused on the manacles as he pulled out a lockpick and got to work.

Keith swallowed, breathing through his nose as he tried to get his heart rate back down to normal, but that didn’t seem to be happening anytime soon, so he put his focus into keeping still long enough for Shiro to unlock the cuffs. Lance approached slowly, and he delicately moved the duvet from where it was tucked into the foot of the bed and draped it over Keith as far as it could go. With Keith still stretched out on the bed, the blanket only reached his navel, but that was still enough to hide the most sensitive areas, so it was a marked improvement. “Thanks,” Keith rasped.

“Shit, Mullet, don’t thank us,” said Lance. “You wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place if we hadn’t - if we - ” He gulped. “Are you, um - did he - did he…?”

The tears started flowing again, unbidden, and Keith sniffed before answering in a choked voice, “No. Almost, but - but no.”

“Okay,” said Lance. “That’s - that’s good. I mean, it’s not - it isn’t _good,_ it’s - it’s better than - than if it - I mean the whole thing is - Christ.” He wiped a hand over his face with a sigh. “God, Keith, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, I - ”

“Don’t,” Keith said softly. “Not now.”

Lance turned away, and above Keith’s head he heard a click before Shiro muttered, “Got it,” and tossed the handcuffs away. Gratefully Keith brought his arms down, wincing at the stiffness left from the strain. Shiro moved around into Keith’s line of sight, his jaw stiff and eyes looking as tired as Keith had ever seen them. “Keith?” he said. “It’s - it’s good to see you. I, uh - ” He took a deep breath. “Let’s, um, just focus on getting you back to the Castle. Everything else - you’ve had enough for one day.”

“Yeah,” Keith said.

“Shiro,” Lance said, turning back to them. “Coran wants to know if there’s any big injuries besides the ones they saw already.” He tapped at his helmet. “Hang on, Coran, I’m asking.”

“Keith?” Shiro said. “Coran and Allura - they were keeping an eye out, to make sure we knew where to go and what to expect.” Keith nodded silently. “They, uh, they said you had a broken ankle, a head injury, possibly broken ribs…”

“I don’t think they’re broken,” Keith said. “And, um, the head injury - it hurts, but it’s not too bad.”

“Was there anything else?”

“No. No, those were the main ones.”

Shiro nodded. “Coran, there are some cuts and bruises to be accounted for, but no other major injuries.” He took a deep breath and scanned his eyes over Keith’s form. “If it’s just the one leg injured, hopefully we can walk you back if you use me as a bit of a crutch.”

“The guards - ” Keith choked out. “They’ll be - they’re gonna be mad…”

“Hunk and Pidge are taking care of them,” Shiro said.

“Would hate to be one of those guards right about now,” Lance muttered. “Don’t think I’ve ever seen Pidge that angry. It was kinda terrifying. I mean, not as terrifying as, uh - ” He gestured vaguely around the room with a wave of his hand. “But still.”

“Know what you mean,” Shiro said. “Keith? Can I go ahead and help you up?”

“Um,” Keith said, glancing uncertainly down at his body, still naked aside from the duvet.

“Here,” Lance grunted, and he tossed Olren’s dressing gown up for Shiro to catch. “Keith’s is all ripped.”

Keith gulped at the prospect of having Olren’s clothes on him, and Shiro’s brows furrowed apologetically. “We can just wrap you up in the duvet,” Shiro said. “If that would be better.”

“No,” Keith said. “No, that would - it’s more likely to slip. This is fine.”

“Okay,” Shiro said, “If you’re sure.” He reached out to help Keith into a sitting position, and assisted as Keith maneuvered his stiff limbs through the sleeves. They fell far past his fingertips once they were fully on, but Keith didn’t mind it. If anything, it just made it easier to shrink into the fabric, to hide away.

Carefully Shiro hoisted Keith off of the bed, setting him onto the floor on his good leg and wrapping Keith’s opposite arm across his shoulder so he could lean against Shiro as he half-carried him toward the door. “Lance, come on,” Shiro said. “Stay out ahead of us, Keith’s in no condition to fight.”

“Yeah, I’m coming,” Lance said. He hurried toward the door, but when he was steps away, he stopped and turned around. “Actually, one more thing.”

“Lance?” said Shiro.

“I’ll be quick.” Lance jogged back over toward Olren’s unconscious body, jaw set in determination. Once he was standing over him, he lifted his leg, then slammed his foot down as hard as he could on the king’s groin, grinding his heel down for good measure. He gave a second kick as a courtesy before rejoining the others, leading the way out the door, nodding toward Keith as he went. “Doesn’t make things right,” Lance called over his shoulder. “But it’s a start.”

“Yeah,” Keith said quietly as he and Shiro followed behind him. “Yeah, it’s a start.”


	6. Chapter 6

They rode back in Red. And as much as Keith wanted to keep his head high and act like everything was all right, everything was normal, claim that he’d be fine to pilot Black back to the Castle of Lions and he didn’t need Shiro and Lance hovering over him the whole way back and looking at him the way they were, like he was made of porcelain and would shatter at any moment, he knew he couldn’t.

Because everything wasn’t all right. He could still taste Olren’s tongue in his mouth and feel his fingers on his skin and he was still breathing harder than he was supposed to, still on the alert. As if at any moment the king would suddenly appear out of thin air and throw him back onto the bed and his teammates wouldn’t be fast enough this time to stop him.

Holding tightly to the dressing gown wrapped around him was the only thing he could do to keep his hands from shaking, and Keith curled up underneath it as he sank to the cold metal floor of Red’s interior. Shiro sat opposite him, while Lance took the controls and was the one to update Allura on their progress.

“Think Black’s gonna follow us back,” Lance said once they were in the air. “Look, here on the viewscreen, she’s waking up.”

“That’s good,” Shiro said. “One less thing to worry about.”

Keith nodded silently. How to get Black back to the Castle when he wasn’t piloting her honestly hadn’t been on his mind at all. He wasn’t really in the mood to think long term at the moment. There were so many things they were going to have to address soon, about losing the alliance and making an enemy out of Yuipra and how that was going to affect the coalition. But right now, he couldn’t think about that. He couldn’t stand to think about anything except repeating to himself again and again that it was over, he was safe, no one was touching him now.

Once Lance had given Allura their ETA and been assured that the message had been passed on to Pidge and Hunk that they were good to leave the palace, the three occupants of the Red Lion lapsed into silence. Keith shivered against the metal floor, trying to tuck his feet in such a way that they weren’t touching it. Back when he had been Red’s pilot, he was never able to notice how cold the metal was, even when he spent time in the hangar, lying on her floor in just his day clothes. She had always been a warm presence in his mind, soothing and cozy, ready to ignite into a wildfire at a moment’s notice.

If he were still Red’s pilot, he thought, she probably would have attacked that palace, the way she had done to the Blade of Marmora headquarters when she had sensed his distress. Black hadn’t done that. She didn’t seem to have that same protective streak that Red did, that ardor for scooping her pilot out of danger.

Keith missed Red’s fire.

At least she still had her speed, even if Keith wasn’t the one piloting her, so they were able to make it back to the castle in record time. Keith swallowed down a groan at the way he was jostled when they landed in the hangar - Lance didn’t have the smoothness with Red that Keith had had, although of course nobody was tactless enough to ever point out such a criticism to him - and he stay silent as he slowly tried to clamber onto his good leg, leaning against the lion’s wall for balance. Shiro crossed over to him and took one of his shoulders for support, and as they moved to exit out of Red’s jaw, Lance slipped in and took the other.

They still didn’t share a word between them, and Keith couldn’t really bring himself to look either of them in the face.

Footsteps echoed through the hangar as they reached the floor, signaling Allura hurrying to meet them. She looked more frazzled than Keith could recall seeing her in a long time. Several stray locks of her hair were falling free from her updo, the pink marks below her eyes seemed dim, and her face had taken on a gray hue that made her look just a little like Hunk after a severe bout of motion sickness.

“Oh, thank the ancients,” she sighed as she reached them, her voice a couple of notches higher than its usual. “Keith, I - I can’t even begin to - everyone got down to the palace as fast as they could, I’m sorry, I would’ve taken Blue down too, but we had to keep track of the monitor, make sure we knew what was happening and where you were. I didn’t, er - I swear, I didn’t see - I turned off the video part the moment that they started to - to remove your - erm, but I had to keep the audio going, we couldn’t just be left not knowing anything, we had to know if you were being injured further and whether - whether he, er - ” She swallowed. “He didn’t, right? Lance said they interrupted just in time.”

“No, he didn’t,” Keith mumbled. That was true, of course. Olren _hadn’t_ gotten to go all the way like he’d tried to. But right now, somehow, that hardly seemed to matter. The lead-up had been enough. Enough to leave the phantom touch of his fingers all over, and the echoes of his whispers in Keith’s ear, calling him lucky and beautiful and delectable and irresistible and saying that he was only taking what he deserved before moving his hands down toward his -

A small whimper and a lurch forward was the only warning Keith gave before the contents of the evening’s dinner were coming back up and splattering onto the hangar floor. Allura managed to hop back and out of the way, bringing a hand to her mouth, but several droplets splashed onto Keith’s feet, and probably hit Lance and Shiro as well. At least they were both in their armor. “Sorry,” he said, bringing an arm up to wipe at his chin.

“S’okay,” Lance grunted. He pointedly turned away from the sick and kept his eyes on the lights along the ceiling instead, face stiff as he breathed solely through his mouth. “Better out than in.”

“Erm,” said Allura. “We should get you down to the med bay, yes? Coran’s got a pod prepared for your leg, and your head. They should be fairly quick to mend, I believe. I’ll get a cleaning bot in here to take care of… this…”

“Thanks, Allura,” Shiro said, giving Keith a gentle nudge back upward. “Keith, that okay by you? We good to head to the med bay?”

Keith nodded wordlessly, not trusting himself to open his mouth again, and he let Lance and Shiro half-drag him out of the hangar as Allura left to start getting the mess cleaned up. As they reached the hangar’s exit, Keith could hear Black settling into her own hangar on the other side of the wall. Yellow and Green probably weren’t all that far behind, but Keith had no desire to wait for Hunk and Pidge to join them before getting his injuries addressed. Far too many people had already seen him in his current state for his liking.

Coran was added to that number soon, when they made it to the med bay to find a pod ready to go and a cryosuit already in the advisor’s arms, waiting for Keith to wear it. Coran showed a few signs of the stress of the evening - a sheen of sweat coated his forehead and nose, and his mouth had all but disappeared as they were pressed thin enough to be hidden by his mustache - but he was hiding it better than Allura had been. Keith wasn’t sure how to feel about that, whether to be grateful to Coran for not embarrassing him or whether he wanted to shake Coran by the shoulders and demand that he be horrified and guilt-ridden for encouraging sending Keith into that palace in the first place. Hell, part of him wanted to do that to everyone on the team, but what good would that do? It’s not like Keith himself wasn’t at all to blame, either, right? He _had_ agreed to it, albeit reluctantly.

He was lost enough in his whirling thoughts of blame and guilt that Coran had to clear his throat twice to get his attention. “Keith?” he said, holding out the cryosuit. “Whenever you’re ready.” And that was all he seemed ready to say to him for now.

“Right.” Keith unwrapped his left arm from where it had been draped over Lance’s shoulder to take the cryosuit. “I’ll, um, I’ll change in the cot bay, if that’s okay.”

“Of course,” Coran said, stepping aside so Shiro and Lance could lead him over.

Keith leaned out of their hold the moment they reached the doorway, practically falling right onto the closest cot. He scrambled to sit upright and cleared his throat before looking to the others, who lingered in the doorway. “You can go,” he said. “I’ll holler when I’m changed.”

“Do you need any help with - ?” Shiro started.

 _“No,”_ Keith cut him off sharply. Shiro grimaced and took a step back, and Keith sighed. “No, just - let me do this alone. Please.”

“Okay,” Shiro said slowly. “Be careful with that leg.”

“I know,” Keith said. Shiro turned away and ushered Lance back before the door slid shut behind them.

For a couple of doboshes, Keith did nothing. He simply sat on the cot, fingers clinging to the folds of the dressing gown. His gaze stayed fixed on the cryosuit on his lap. It was going to be painful putting it on over his bad leg and bruised ribs, but doable. He’d been in it before after recklessness on missions. The fabric moved surprisingly smoothly over the skin while it was being put on, only becoming stiffer and form-fitting after it was activated, so he could certainly get changed without help.

The only problem was that to put the cryosuit on, he would first have to take the dressing gown off.

Despite the deep breaths he took to keep steady, his heart was in his throat as he started to move the gown off his shoulder, eyes locked onto the door of the sleeping bay to ensure no one came barging in. It was stupid, he knew. Lance and Shiro and Coran were the only ones out there, and they were giving him space, they weren’t going to interrupt. Or even if they did, they would knock and wait for the go-ahead before coming in.

He knew this, logically, but he still felt vulnerable as he finally removed the dressing gown. The air conditioning hit his skin like ice, leaving goosebumps in his wake, and even as the only person in the room he felt hideously exposed. Like he was standing in the middle of a crowded battlefield with no armor.

As quickly as he could so as not to remain undressed for a single second longer than absolutely necessary, Keith shoved the dressing gown aside and took up the cryosuit, rolling it up over his bad leg first. He clenched his teeth and hissed when he jostled the bone, and he forced himself to slow down just enough not to damage it further. Once the leg was dressed up to the thigh, he let out a breath and had an easier time pulling the other leg through.

He couldn’t contort himself properly to seal up the back of the cryosuit, but otherwise, he had managed to get himself fully covered before finally hobbling back to the door, hand against the wall, and heading back into the main medbay. Shiro, Lance, and Coran were still out there waiting for them, discussing something in low voices before Keith’s reappearance interrupted them and they dropped the conversation to hurry over and help keep him standing.

“Come along, bring him over to the pod,” Coran instructed as Lance and Shiro resumed their previous positions at Keith’s sides. “Ah, here, let me get that closed for you. Do you mind, Number Four?”

“Go ahead,” Keith said, and tried not to stiffen his spine too much when Coran’s fingers brush against the skin of his exposed back as he zipped up the cryosuit. It’s just Coran, he told himself. It’s just your teammates. You can trust your teammates, right?

The teammates who had sent him straight into the arms of that monster?

No, he couldn’t think that way. He had agreed to it. They hadn’t forced him to go, he had agreed. He had said it was fine.

They should have realized it wasn’t fine. Except, no, they shouldn’t have, because if he trusted his teammates, they should trust him too, which means that they should believe him when he says he’s fine with something. Well, no, he _hadn’t_ said he was fine with it, had he? Just that he understood it was necessary for the alliance. Which was true. He’d been honest with them. He’d been honest as hell, he’d even come out to them, which he’d never done for anyone but Shiro.

And they had ignored it, decided it didn’t matter how uncomfortable he was.

No, they hadn’t ignored it, it just wasn’t relevant, because it wasn’t about comfort, it was about the alliance.

Except Shiro even said it, when Olren was taking things too far, they didn’t need the alliance _that_ badly.

But he hadn’t felt that way before, when he’d said Keith should take one for the team.

He should’ve taken one for the team. He should’ve gotten the alliance.

That was ridiculous, he shouldn’t even think that way. An alliance with a person like that couldn’t possibly be a good idea.

He should’ve fought back harder against Olren, then, because he was still supposed to be the leader now, and his teammates shouldn’t have had to rescue him like that.

He should’ve stood his ground in the first place, said no, refused to go on that date.

He should’ve said something at that banquet, when Olren had made those comments and stared at him and tickled his neck.

He should’ve -

“You’ll be feeling healthier than a hexiphog on a hot day in just a jiff,” Coran said. “Don’t you worry about a thing, Keith.”

It was a relief when the cryopod door shut and Keith felt himself drifting into unconsciousness. If he’d let himself go any deeper into his own head, he probably would have drowned.

After what seemed like only a moment after the world had gone black around him, it was coming back into focus, the chill of the cryopod hitting his nerves even before the light of the med bay hit his eyes. The pod door hissed open, and he collapsed out of it, stumbling down into waiting arms. He let himself sag into the familiar grip, until he realized that it wasn’t quite so familiar as he’d initially thought. The hands weren’t as firm as Shiro’s, and the chest against him was softer and rounder.

His brows creased as he looked up and let his vision come into focus, only to find Hunk’s worried face looking back at him. Not that Keith wasn’t glad to see him, but the last couple of times he’d been in a cryopod, it had been Shiro who had caught him afterward. This time, though, a quick scan around the room showed Shiro seated on the steps leading down toward the pods. Allura was beside him, and his expression was blank, looking in the general direction of the pods but not really seeming to seem Keith.

He wasn’t the only one looking odd. The whole team was there, Lance seated several steps away from Shiro and Allura, Pidge and Coran standing near the pod. Pidge had her arms crossed tightly and was biting her lip, while Coran was angled haphazardly against the pod, like he was trying to appear casual but had forgotten how to stand. Altogether the scene made for a decidedly awkward tableau, not helped by the fact that no one seemed willing to break the uncomfortable silence besides the low electronic hum of the cryopod powering down.

Keith stepped slowly out of Hunk’s hold, looking to each of his teammates in turn, and having to fight not to physically recoil from the varying degrees of pity and guilt and discomfort on each of their faces.

At one point, Allura opened her mouth as if to stay something, but closed it again a tick later, dropping her gaze to the floor and shifting her feet. Hunk let out a little muffled squeak, and his chin was trembling when Keith glanced in his direction.

Lance, though, ended up being the first to actually speak. “Hey, listen, man,” he said. “We really need to - ”

“I’m tired,” Keith interrupted, the words coming out unexpectedly, unbidden.

Lance frowned. “What?”

“I’m - I’m tired,” Keith said. “The cryopod and all, it - it always makes - it just - I need to rest. I need to get some sleep. I’m gonna - I’m gonna do that. Gonna go sleep.”

“Keith,” Shiro said. “Can’t it wait just a - ?”

“No.” Keith shook his head. “No, I need to sleep. Now. I have to - I have to go.”

And he ducked his head and marched straight out of the med bay. He could hear movement behind him, and Hunk called out, “Keith, wait!” before Pidge said, “If he wants to sleep, let him sleep.” Keith ignored it all. He didn’t turn back, didn’t stop or slow until he was back in the safety and privacy of his own room. Where he could finally rest.

And, if he needed it, where he could finally fall to pieces.


	7. Chapter 7

Time passed in a sludge, hiding in the silence of his bedroom and switching between sitting huddled on his bed and pacing the length of his room. He had gotten dressed in his regular day clothes right after he’d made it to his room, after triple-checking that the door was securely locked so no one could burst in on him. It felt good to have his gloves and jacket on again, and focusing on the feel of their fabric against his skin almost blocked out the lingering sensation of Olren’s fingers brushing along his torso or intertwined in Keith’s own, almost made his body feel like his own again.

Almost.

Somehow he’d managed to fall asleep at some point, despite his jacket and boots remaining on and him not daring to get under his bedcovers, and it wasn’t all that different from being awake, since the visions of his evening with Olren and where else it could have gone assaulted him relentlessly regardless of whether he was awake or sleeping. Still, it was probably a good thing that he was woken by a knock at his door.

He startled awake, fishing instinctively for his knife under the pillow before Coran’s voice joined the knocking. “Number Four? Are you all right in there?”

Keith let his grip on the knife loosen and took a breath, trying to calm his racing heart. He wasn’t sure if its elevated rate was due to him being startled or left over from his dreaming. “Number Four? Keith?”

“Yeah,” Keith croaked out.

The knocking stopped. “We’ve made breakfast. Are you up for joining us? We, ah - we’ve noticed, you’ve been in there a while, without eating…”

Keith grimaced. “Um… no, thank you, Coran.”

“Right. Ah, I understand.” Coran cleared his throat. “Well, whenever you’re ready. Let us know if you need anything, anything at all, okay?”

There was silence at the door, probably Coran waiting for a response, and when he didn’t get one, he audibly sighed, and footsteps retreated down the hall as he left. Keith waited a few ticks after they were out of earshot before he got up and resumed yesterday’s pacing.

He wasn’t keeping track of the time passing, so it was hard to say how long it was before he was greeted by another knock at the door, accompanied by Hunk timidly trying to tempt him out for a snack. Again Keith declined. When Shiro came knocking later, Keith couldn’t even bring himself to reply aloud, and he waited silently on his bed until Shiro gave up and let him be.

They seemed to be taking it in turns to check in on him, and when Pidge came next, she wasn’t so easily deterred. Keith jumped at the sound of her knocks, which sounded like Pidge was throwing her entire weight into, and she half-yelled through the door. “Keith!” she said. “Keith, this isn’t healthy, okay? You have to eat, you have to - have to do _something!_ Come on, please, we’re worried about you.”

Keith remained silent where he was, huddled on the bed, legs throbbing from all the pacing he’d done with no food to energize them.

“Keith?” Pidge called again. When Keith still didn’t reply, she let out a frustrated breath. “Keith, if you don’t respond, I’m coming in there. I have to make sure you’re okay.” True to her word, a couple of soft beeps followed, sounds that Keith recognized as coming from a comms tablet. She was probably hacking into the lock on the door. “If you’re okay and you _really_ don’t want me coming in, say something.”

Keith opened his mouth, ready to speak up, to tell her to go away, but no sound came out. On some level, he knew that what he was doing, isolating himself in his room and not moving from his bed and wallowing in thoughts of what had happened, wasn’t good for him. And he knew that he would have to face the others eventually, to talk things out, but he didn’t know if he was ready. He didn’t know that he ever would be.

It seemed, though, that it was happening, ready or not, and he let it. He sat still as Pidge got the door unlocked and it slid open with its familiar electronic hiss, and he waited for her to make the first move. It took a moment - Pidge didn’t seem to have had much of a plan beyond getting his door open, seeing how long she spent hovering in the doorway, tablet gripped tightly in her hands and eyes darting around Keith’s room. Probably looking for some indication of what he’d been doing all this time shut in here by himself.

Eventually, she took a deep breath and asked, “Is it okay if I sit down?” She gestured toward the foot of his bed.

After a few seconds, Keith silently nodded, pulling his feet closer toward himself and wrapping his arms around his knees. The mattress sank a little as Pidge took a seat, tucking the tablet into her sweatshirt’s pocket, and Keith kept his gaze down, not wanting to meet her eyes despite her intense gaze obviously wanting him to look up.

When it became clear that he wasn’t going to, Pidge cleared her throat. “Keith, I, um - ” she said. “I wanted to, uh - to say that - well, we all want to say sorry. About what happened. What we talked you into doing. It was - it was fucked up, and it was so fucking obvious that you didn’t want to and - and - and we could’ve been looking for alliances with other planets, so that excuse, that we needed it, it - it didn’t - it didn’t justify, um… just, I can’t even begin to - ”

“Forget it,” Keith mumbled, eyes still on his knees. “It’s over. You weren’t the one pushing for it. Wasn’t your idea.” He sighed, turning his head to rest his cheek on his knee. “Wasn’t your fault.”

“Okay, fine, I didn’t force you. But I didn’t stop it either. I - I didn’t want to - I mean, like, Shiro and Allura were all for it, and I was thinking that, like, if they wanted you to do it, then I couldn’t exactly shout them down, but - but - God, Keith, that was so stupid of me. I should’ve - I should’ve - ”

Her voice broke, and the rest of the sentence was cut off by her hitched breath. Finally Keith lifted his head to look at her, and was surprised by the sight. Pidge had removed her glasses, and was scrubbing at her eyes, her cheeks and nose a bold pink.

“Pidge?” Keith said. “Are, um - are you - ?”

“Oh, God, Keith, don’t do that!” Pidge said, waving a hand at him. “Don’t be asking me if _I’m_ okay! I’m not the one who just - who had - who went through what you did! _You’re_ the one we’re worried about! Trust me, having to watch it was bad, yeah, but being in your shoes… I can’t even…”

She took a deep breath and lowered her head, moving her glasses down to wipe at the lenses with the hem of her shirt. “You know, back in middle school, there were some kids who were kinda - well, they were assholes. Had a habit of picking on me, and anyone else they considered ‘weird’. And they liked to dare each other to do things, you know, stupid things that they could film and thought were funny. And one time, apparently one of the guys had been dared to kiss me. They didn’t know I was aroace, heck, _I_ didn’t know it at the time either, it wasn’t about that, it was just like, ‘haha, won’t it be so funny and embarrassing to have to kiss the freaky nerd girl, isn’t that a riot’.

“So, I’m walking in the hall during passing period, minding my own damn business, and all of a sudden I’m grabbed by the arm, and this fucker is spinning me around and plants one on me. Tongue and all. Only took a couple seconds, I was just too stunned to do anything but stand there. And when he’s done he runs off to his buddies, laughing his ass off, and I just - I didn’t even know what to do. I’m standing there shaking and confused and people are staring, and if I could go back in time and do things over, I would have chased that guy down and knocked his teeth out. But I didn’t. I was, I dunno, in a bit of a stupor, I guess. I went to the nurse and told her I felt sick, which, you know, was true. And she let me go home early.

“And that was… God, even now, all this time after it feels… icky, just thinking about it. And I can’t even - I can’t even imagine, how it felt, for you, after, um, after what - what that guy…” She took another deep breath. “Look, I don’t know where on the spectrum you are when it comes to romance and stuff, like, in terms of favorable and neutral and repulsed and all, but if it were me… Like, um, there was a point in that garden of his where we couldn’t see what was happening, because your camera was pressed up too close to Olren’s chest, but we could still hear, through the mic, and - and even just watching from the Castle, I was getting queasy, got that same feeling in my stomach that I did back then. I should’ve pulled the plug on it right then and there. I should’ve told the others, that’s it, we’re going in there and stopping it. But…”

“Pidge,” Keith said, the word coming out in a dry crackle. “It’s not… I mean, he didn’t even, um - he didn’t manage to - ”

“So what?!” Pidge snapped. “Yeah, he didn’t manage to do the absolute worst, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t do plenty else to you! And don’t try to claim it was any less fucked up than it really was, because you wouldn’t be hiding out in your room like this if everything else he did wasn’t bad too.” With a sigh she set her glasses down on the bed and leaned up against the wall, head tilted toward the ceiling. “Lance and Shiro told us how they found you. How close it got. And Allura and Coran - they turned the camera off, but apparently they still could hear everything. Allura was looking like she was gonna throw up when Hunk and I got back. Just being witnesses to that shit was awful, so to actually have it happen to you… however bad we’re feeling, it’s nowhere close to you. And it’s our fault, for pushing this, for not stopping it. I should have stopped it, fuck, if anyone knows how weird this would have been for you, it’s me. I should’ve - I - ”

“Hey.” Tentatively Keith uncurled a little to reach out a shaking hand toward Pidge. But she was sitting too far from him to reach her, and he couldn’t bring himself to uncurl any further, not right now, so he let his hand drop onto the bedspread as he gulped down the lump in his throat. “Don’t - don’t do that. Don’t start beating yourself up over this. I mean… you… you’re the one who suggested the cameras.” His eyes widened, the realization hitting him even as he said the words. “God, if you hadn’t, then…”

“We wouldn’t have been there to stop it,” Pidge whispered. She let out a strangled sound and brought her hands to her mouth, eyes watering anew. “Holy shit, Keith. This was way too close. _Shit_ , Keith.”

“I know.”

Pidge shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. “You know, the others all want to apologize too. It’s why we were all there waiting when you got out of the pod. Well, that and just, you know, making sure you’re okay. Physically. But I - I don’t think it’s possible. To say sorry enough. To be apologetic enough to make it okay.”

Keith winced. “It’s… it isn’t their - ”

“I know, I know, wasn’t our fault. It was that fuckface king’s doing, I know. Not ours. But we all still let it happen. And, well, sure that king was a bastard, and none of us should’ve trusted him. But the rest of us… we’re your teammates. Shiro and Allura, they’re our leaders. You should have been able to trust us.”

Keith was silent, unsure what he could say to that. It wasn’t as if any of them were flawless. Hell, he had made plenty of his own bad calls as the Black Paladin. They had all been thrust against their will into an absolute hell of a situation, unprepared to be soldiers and diplomats and intergalactic symbols of hope. Even Allura had been raised in peacetime, and hadn’t expected to take the throne so suddenly or lead Voltron in Alfor’s stead.

They were all still learning, finding their footing, and they’d come a long way, but… it suddenly seemed almost arrogant, to think that they had come far enough to be making the calls for things like this. And trusting his team’s ability to do so had nearly destroyed him.

“Keith?” Pidge said softly. “You still with me?”

“Yeah,” Keith said. He cleared his throat. “Yeah, sorry, just - just thinking.”

“Oh.”

“I think… I think I need a break.”

Pidge paused, brows wrinkling. “A break… from, um, from being Black Paladin?”

“... I don’t know.”

“Hm.” She pursed her lips.

“It’s not, um, it’s not that I don’t - ”

“You don’t need to explain. I get it.” She sniffed once more and swiped her sleeve across her nose. “Hey, so, uh, how are you - how are you feeling right now about, uh, about being touched?”

“Being touched?” Keith repeated.

“Not - not that way, not like - I meant, like, would you be okay if, say… I hugged you right now?”

“Oh. Um, you can hug me, if you - ”

He didn’t even have a chance to finish his sentence before Pidge was diving across the bed, wrapping Keith in a tight hug and burying her face into the fabric of his jacket. Keith hesitantly returned the hug, resting his face on her shaking shoulder, and as Pidge’s tears soaked his jacket, he couldn’t help letting a few of his own fall as well.

He stayed silent, though, letting Pidge’s muffled sobs be the only sound for the length of the hug until she finally, reluctantly, pulled away and cleared her throat. “Right. Um. So, I told you that the whole team wants to apologize, and, um, if - if you’re okay with it, I just have to give the go ahead and we can meet up in the lounge, get it all out. But only if you’re okay with it.”

Keith took a long, slow breath. “I… probably should hear them out,” he said. “Guess hiding out here isn’t exactly great for me.”

Pidge smiled sadly. “Yeah. Not that you aren’t good at the whole hermit thing, just, there are definitely better talents to have. I’ll message the others.” She pulled the tablet out of her pocket, then frowned before muttering, “Shit,” and digging into the pocket again. “Promised Hunk I’d give you this.” She pulled a little rectangle from the pocket, one of the Altean energy bars Coran had dug out of storage a while back that were surprisingly filling despite tasting like styrofoam. “Seeing as you haven’t eaten anything in forever.”

“Thanks, but, um, I’m kinda nauseous right now. Not up for eating.”

Pidge huffed. “Nausea’s a sign of hunger, genius. It’ll only get worse the longer you don’t eat. Come on, it’s small.” She shoved the bar into Keith’s hand. “Eat it. I’ll message the others, and we can go meet them once you’re done.”

Keith rolled his eyes, but at Pidge’s scowl, he obediently unwrapped the bar and bit into it. After a few taps on the tablet, Pidge pocketed it and watched Keith closely, as if worried he’d try to hide the energy bar instead of eating it, like a picky toddler. He ate slowly and the food sat in his stomach like concrete when he finished, but admittedly he didn’t feel quite as shaky anymore once it was down.

“You ready?” Pidge asked as he crumpled the wrapper and stuffed it into his jacket pocket.

“No,” Keith said, but he stood up and nodded toward the door. “But I’m coming. Lead the way.”

* * *

He could hear the voices of the other paladins, hushed though they were, as he and Pidge neared the lounge, but they dropped off the moment he entered. All eyes turned toward the entryway, and Keith hovered uncertainly at the edge of the room.

Allura was the first to acknowledge him aloud, rising from her seat with her hands crossed in front of her, almost the very picture of grace and decorum that she always was, but the loose tendrils of hair and tiredness of her eyes gave her away. This wasn’t her making a speech before foreign dignitaries or giving a report to coalition members. This was her being fully aware that the threads holding her team together were growing frayed, and knowing she had played a part, however well-meaning that part may have been.

At least, that was Keith’s best guess as to where her mind was. She was never easy to read, but at the moment, at least she was giving a little away. In the seat adjacent to hers, Shiro’s face was a blank mask, revealing nothing at all, so perhaps it was just her seeming open in comparison.

“Keith,” she said. “It’s good to see you up and about again. I must admit, we were growing worried.”

“Forget worried, Hunk here has been a blubbering mess,” Lance said, gesturing with his thumb toward Hunk, who even now was dewey-eyed and red-nosed.

“Oh, excuse me for caring about my friend’s well-being,” Hunk said. “No shame in crying, Lance.”

“Hey, I didn’t say it to embarrass you or anything, just letting Keith know what he missed while he wasn’t around.”

“The point they are trying to make, Number Four,” Coran interrupted. “Is that we’ve all been quite concerned about you and how you were, ah, dealing with things. I imagine you’ve been having difficulty since everything that occurred on Yuipra, and we want to be there for you, if you’ll let us.”

Keith nodded minutely. “Yeah,” he mumbled. “Pidge, uh, she told me as much.”

“Well, you certainly deserve to hear it from us too,” Allura said. She nodded toward an empty spot on the sofa beside Shiro. “Will you please take a seat?”

“If you want to,” Hunk said hastily. “You know, only if you’re comfortable. You can stand, if that’s better. Or, here, I’ve got the good cushion, you can take my seat - ”

“Hunk,” said Pidge. “Take it easy.”

“That’s okay, Hunk,” Keith said, slowly descending the steps toward the center of the lounge as Pidge followed close behind. “I’m fine here.” He settled in next to Shiro, glancing toward him as he did. Shiro offered him a little smile that didn’t seem to reach his eyes, but kept his hands folded tightly in his lap.

“Right,” Allura said, lowering herself back into her seat and smoothing out her already smooth dress. “Now. I’m sure you know that the reason we all want to speak to - ”

“We’re sorry!” Hunk cried out suddenly. “Oh my God, Keith, we are so so so sorry! About what happened with Olren, and making you do that practicing and making dumb jokes during the ‘date’ thing and not stopping and it was so messed up, man, _so messed up,_ and that guy is a total sicko and we never should have let him so much as touch you but we _did_ and that was wrong and we didn’t listen, oh God, you said you didn’t want to but _we didn’t listen_ and he almost - ”

“Hunk, breathe!” Lance said, grabbing his shoulder as Hunk let out a long, loud sniffle.

“Um,” Keith said. “Uh, look, Hunk, it’s okay - ”

“We appreciate the sentiment, Keith,” said Coran. “But no, it’s really not. We know how bad things got down there, and it wouldn’t have gotten that way if we hadn’t pushed it the way we had. You deserve to have your boundaries and your comfort respected, and it shouldn’t have taken something like this to get us to realize it.”

Lance sighed. “Yeah, dude, it was - it was fucked up, honestly. Look, I don’t really, um, get how you, uh - like, your whole thing about dates, it’s not something I can, uh, relate to, or whatever, but - but it’s pretty obvious that it matters. A lot. And I, um, I shouldn’t have, like, been making jokes about it or making fun of you while everything was going on. I mean, I swear I wasn’t trying to be mean about anything, honest, I was trying to relieve the tension. But, uh, there shouldn’t have been all that tension in the first place, is what I’m saying. And I kinda just made things worse. I’m sorry too.”

“I certainly don’t expect you to just be all right with everything right away,” Allura said. “Well, I should say, I don’t expect you to _ever_ be all right with what happened with King Olren, but I meant that I understand if you’re not quick to forgive our involvement. You made it clear from the start how dreadful something like this was for you, but I was too focused on Yuipra’s resources to realize you were hurting. There are other alliances out there that we can make, other planets we can bring into the coalition. But there’s only one Keith and… we nearly were careless enough to let that be destroyed. I cannot apologize enough.”

“Neither can I, Keith,” Shiro said, speaking up for the first time since Keith had arrived. “I know you have your boundaries, and I know how important they are to you, and you deserve to have them respected. Believe me, if I had had even the slightest inkling of what kind of person Olren was, what he really wanted from you, I never would have encouraged you to agree to the date. I’m sorry that everything turned out the way they - ”

“Hang on,” Pidge said, lifting her hand slightly. “What do you mean by that?”

Shiro blinked over at her. “What? By ‘sorry’?”

Pidge shook her head. “No, not that. You said that _if_ you’d known how far Olren wanted to go, you would’ve stopped it.”

“Pidge, I don’t know what you - ”

“Look, this isn’t a conditional thing, okay?” Pidge said, her eyes narrowing. “Sure, Olren was a bastard who deserves to have his large intestine ripped out through his throat, but that’s not the point.”

“Ew. Pidge,” said Lance.

Pidge ignored him. “Imagine that wasn’t the case. Say that Olren was a perfect chaste gentleman throughout the whole evening with Keith. Wouldn’t change the fact that we had pushed Keith into going on a date after he made it clear how distressing that would be for him, basically ignored him after he came out to all of us. That’s still on us.”

Shiro sighed. “Pidge, I’m apologizing for that, you know that I’m sorry about all of this.”

“That’s not what you said.”

“Pidge,” said Keith. “It’s okay, you don’t need to - ”

“Yes, I do, okay?” said Pidge. “Sure, everyone’s sorry, but, shit, we all gotta make sure we know what we’re apologizing _for_. What Olren did, that’s not our fault. We didn’t make him treat Keith the way he did. But Keith being there in the palace with him in the first place? _That’s_ our fault. And _that’s_ what we have to take away from this. What if next time someone wants to get all cozy with Keith in exchange for an alliance, it’s someone who’s actually sweet and polite and non-rapey. Does that mean it’s okay now to force Keith into their arms against his will, tell him to grin and bear it?”

Shiro grimaced. “Look, that’s really not relevant to - ”

“Holy _shit_ , Shiro, the answer is no!” Pidge said, getting to her feet and jabbing her finger toward him. “Are you fucking serious right now?!”

“Pidge, you need to calm down,” Shiro said, a bit of a stony edge creeping into his own voice. “I _know_ that, okay? I don’t need you making me feel any more terrible about this whole thing than I already do. Because I _do_. I feel awful and the last thing I would ever want is to see my little brother hurting like this. You know that, don’t you, Keith?”

Keith gulped and nodded. “Yeah. ‘Course.”

“And it was never my intention to disrespect you or harm you in any way.”

“Oh, good,” Pidge huffed. “Because the road to Heaven is the one that’s paved with good intentions, right?”

Shiro sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, and Allura cleared her throat. “You know what, this is all growing rather intense,” she said. “We’re all tired, emotions are running high. Perhaps it would be best to clear our heads for a bit. We all could do with a chance to cool down.”

“Good idea,” Lance said, getting to his feet as his eyes darted between Pidge and Shiro. “Uh, Coran, you got any more of those smoky bubble things for the bathtubs?”

“Oh, plenty, Number Three,” Coran said. “I’ll show you where I keep them. Keith, would you be interested in trying one? I can’t begin to describe how relaxing they are. Don’t even need to take a bath with them, just plop them in a bowl of water near your bed and enjoy the mist.”

“I’ll pass, thanks, Coran,” said Keith.

Coran nodded understandingly toward him before following Lance out of the lounge, and Pidge stomped off behind them without a word to the others. The rest of the team began making their way out of the lounge too, while Keith stayed seated, unmoving.

“Hey,” Shiro said, his expression pinched and tight as he got to his feet beside Keith. “I do mean it. I’m sorry.”

“I know,” Keith said.

“About everything.”

Keith nodded.

“You okay?”

“... Uh-huh,” Keith said.

“Good,” said Shiro. He hesitated, then gave Keith a stiff pat on the shoulder. “If you need to talk some more, my door’s always open.”

“Right. Thanks, Shiro.” One more pat on his shoulder, and then Shiro was gone. Keith didn’t bother watching him leave, just listened to his receding footsteps as they gradually faded to silence.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge thank you to everyone who has read and supported this fic, be it through kudos, comments, likes, reblogs, bookmarks, or messages! Your feedback has been amazing!

“Fancy a sparring partner?”

After one finishing blow to the training bot, Keith lifted an arm to wipe away the salty sweat dripping down his forehead into his eyes and turned on his heel toward the source of the voice, the bot evaporating in a puff behind him. Allura stood on the edge of the training deck, dressed in her pink armor and with her dormant bayard in her hand.

“Allura,” he said. “When, uh, when did you get here?”

“Just a few doboshes ago,” she answered. “But, I didn’t want to speak up until you finished off that bot, didn’t want to interrupt.” She tilted her head. “You all right there, Keith? You’re redder than usual. You haven’t been in here all morning, have you?”

Keith shrugged. “I was getting out of practice. Had to make up for it.”

“Mm.” A hint of a frown passed over the princess’s features, but she didn’t say anything more about it. “Well, if you still want to keep training, I’ll be happy to join you. You can catch your breath a bit if you’re sharing the load.”

Keith grimaced. “Actually, ah - ” He let his bayard return to his resting state in his hand. “I was just finishing up. The deck’s all yours.”

“I see. You’re certain you don’t want to do some light cooldown exercises? Better for your muscles that way.”

“Nah, I’m okay.” He rolled his shoulders back and started toward the exit. “Some other time.”

The frown on Allura’s face deepened, no longer just a hint. “I hope I didn’t put you out by interrupting here. If you want me to go, give you some more time on your own to train - ”

“Forget it, it’s fine,” Keith muttered.

He ducked his head as he stalked past her toward the door, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. It wasn’t a hard grip, and it was high enough on the arm to only be touching the sleeve of his tee shirt, not his skin, but he still had to bite back a wince at the sudden contact.

“Keith,” Allura said slowly. “You’re allowed to be angry at us, you know.”

Keith took a step back. “Hm?” he said, lifting his head to meet Allura’s earnest gaze.

“You’ve been keeping your distance from me, from all your teammates. And of course, I suppose that’s only natural, after… after everything. But I hope you don’t feel that you need to keep that distance up forever. We’ve all come so far, in becoming a team, you especially. I just would hate to see this mistake making all of that for naught. However severe a mistake it may have been.”

Keith said nothing, and after a few ticks of hesitation, Allura continued. “We’ve apologized, I know, but that’s still very little. And I know we’ve had talks with you before, about your, er, your volatility...”

“My temper,” Keith said flatly.

“Well, yes.” She took a deep breath. “And we’ve all noticed that you’ve been uncharacteristically… restrained, ever since returning from your evening in Yuipra. I just want to make sure you know, you don’t need to be holding back for our sake, not right now. It’s not healthy, and, well, you are perfectly within your rights to be angry with us.”

“...Yeah. I guess.”

“So I’ll understand if you, er - if you need to yell, if you need to snap. I’m glad that you’re finding an outlet, of course.” She gestured with a wave of her hand to the training deck around them. “But if there’s more that you need to let out, you’re free to. Better to have it in the open, yes?”

A pause reigned between them, Allura watching Keith with a furrowed brow and pursed lips, her posture stiff as though she were bracing herself to absorb the blow when Keith exploded. But instead, he finally sighed. “Look, Allura,” he said. “I _was_ mad, okay? I was pissed off. I was mad that I came out to you all and you treated it as an inconvenience, I was mad that you made me do that stupid date training, I was mad as hell at the way Olren was treating me that whole night. But once I got chained to that goddamn bed, I was too busy being scared out of my fucking mind to be mad, and after it was all over? I was tired. I’m tired, Allura. I’m just tired. Don’t really think I’ve got the energy to be angry with everyone right now.” He shrugged. “Wouldn’t do any good to scream at you guys anyhow. It’s over.”

“Keith - ”

“I really don’t know what you want from me right now.” He ran a hand through his hair, grabbing at the ends when he reached them and tugging. “You’ve all said your piece, I’ve said mine, and I’m coping. So why are we talking about this?”

“I only - ” Allura swallowed. “I only want to ensure that you’re aware that we’re there for you. Your whole team is. And if there’s anything we can do to help get things back to normal, we’d be more than happy to.”

“Back to normal,” Keith repeated. “Like, back to the way things were before Yuipra? Or before I became the black paladin? Or before Voltron? Ship’s already sailed on all of them, Allura. And if you’re seriously suggesting that we try and pretend all this shit didn’t happen - ”

“No, stars, no, that’s not what I’m trying to say,” Allura said, looking properly aghast. “Of course I’m not suggesting that, we oughtn’t sweep anything under the rug. I meant - I only meant - ” With a sigh, she stepped back, leaning the back of her head against the wall, somehow still managing to appear regal despite the posture. “I only want to make things easier, however that happens. For our team’s sake. For your sake. And I don’t know how.”

Keith pursed his lips, crossing his arms.

“There have been plenty of times since our Voltron team began,” Allura continued softly, “When I just wished I could somehow magically undo everything. All the conflict, all the hard decisions we’ve made. All the wrong ones. Every instance when any of us ends up hurting. Of course, there’s not enough magic in the universe to manage that. And there’s no good to come of just wishing it.”

“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride,” Keith mumbled.

Allura quirked a brow at him. “What’s that?”

“Oh. Just some Earth expression. Shiro’s said it to me a couple of times, in the past.”

“But what does it mean?”

Keith shrugged. “No clue. Never asked. Just, you know, he says stuff like that so confidently, I tend to just kinda accept it. He’s pretty much got an endless supply of proverbs and stuff, they can’t all be winners.”

“I suppose… He’s worried about you too, you know,” said Allura.

“Shiro?”

“Mm-hm.”

“Figures. He’s always worried about me.” He paused then, tightening his arms where they were crossed over his chest. “He’s - he’s been different, hasn’t he. Ever since he came back.”

Allura hesitated. “Well, I imagine the stress of captivity takes a toll, and the strangeness of his role on the team changing. It’s understandable if he’s having some difficulty.”

“The other day,” Keith said softly, “He asked if I was okay, and I said yes. And he said, ‘good.’” Without conscious thought his thumb moved, beginning to make small circles against the curled knuckle of his index finger. “He never takes my word for it when I say I’m okay.”

“Were you okay?”

Keith didn’t answer, and Allura sighed. “Right. I suppose I should already know the answer.” She took another long, slow breath, before continuing, “Pidge told me that you mentioned feeling that you need a break from Voltron. Is Shiro part of that? Or is it just due to what happened on Yuipra?”

“It’s - it’s a lot of things. Yuipra, Shiro. Being Black Paladin. Just… a lot of things.”

“Do you think that perhaps you need more leisure time at the Castle? Or do you want to try refocusing your duties away from so much time spent on Coalition recruitment? Something else?”

He let another long pause pass between them before quietly answering, “I’ve, uh, I’ve been thinking - I’ve helped out on a couple of those Blade of Marmora missions, lately. I’m an official Blade, and I think I can be of more use to them.”

Allura’s brows shot up. “You’re thinking of switching to the Blade full-time?”

“We’ve got Shiro back now. I’m just thinking about where I’m probably most needed. And, well - ” He shrugged. “The Blade never has to worry about diplomacy.”

“And you’re - you’re certain you want to do this?”

“I haven’t made concrete plans or anything, but… I’ve been thinking about it. It seems like it could be a good option.”

“I… I see.” Allura’s brows pinched as she frowned pensively, and she continued slowly, as if she were carefully, individually, picking out each word. “I would be… disappointed, to see you go, as I’m sure your other teammates would be. Especially on unfavorable terms. But… if you decide it’s what would be best for you, I will support you. We owe you that much.”

“You guys don’t owe me anything,” Keith mumbled.

Allura smiled sadly at him. “That’s a charitable thing to say, Keith, but patently untrue. If anything - ”

She was cut off by a beep overhead, and they both looked up at the sound of Coran’s voice over the PA system. _“Allura, to the bridge, if you will. We’re receiving a hail from Yuipra.”_

Allura and Keith caught each other’s startled eyes before Allura pulled up the comm unit in the gauntlet of her armor. “Coran?” she said. “What is this in regards to, specifically?”

 _“Ah, erm.”_ Coran cleared his throat. _“Apparently Yuipra wants to do some negotiating.”_

“For the alliance? We’ve already messaged them, we could not have been clearer that we are no longer interested.”

_“No, er, now they’re actually interested in, er… reparations.”_

“They have got to be joking,” Allura whispered, before shutting the comm, turning on her heel, and marching out of the training deck.

Keith dropped his bayard, letting it lay where it fell, and hurried to catch up with her, matching her brisk pace as they set off down the hall together. Allura glanced warily toward him, but didn’t slow her step. “You don’t have to come, Keith,” she said.

“What, you don’t want to risk me going off on him?” Keith snapped.

“That’s not it. I simply meant, well, the last time you saw Olren, he was, er… I just imagine it’d be difficult for you to dredge that up. Are you sure you’d be all right, seeing him again? Hearing this?”

Keith nodded after only a brief moment’s hesitation. “I’m sure. Like hell am I gonna give him the satisfaction of knowing I’m hiding away from him.”

Allura pursed her lips thoughtfully before slowly replying, “If you’re certain.”

“Besides,” Keith added, “I’ll wanna be able to look him in the eyes while you all tell him where he can stick his reparation requests.”

They made it to the elevator that led to the bridge, having to pause and hold the door open at the sound of approaching footsteps that turned out to belong to Lance and Hunk. “You know, Coran only called _me_ up to the bridge,” Allura said as they slid into the elevator.

“Yeah,” said Lance. “But he said it was Yuipra calling. Come on, you can’t expect us to just wait around for you to finish up to find out what they want. ‘Sides, if they’re calling to declare war on Voltron or something - ”

“They’re not,” Keith grunted. “It’s something about ‘reparations’.”

Lance’s brows shot up. “Wait, isn’t that, like, compensation? What the fuck do they think we need to compensate them for? _They’re_ the ones who attacked Keith!”

Hunk sheepishly reached a hand up to rub at the back of his neck. “Well, uh, to be fair, I did shoot up a lot of the decorations in the palace when we were holding those guards off. You know, as distractions. And because, um, it just felt right…”

“They’re lucky we didn’t just smash the palace to pieces,” Lance said, crossing his arms.

The elevator door opened then, and they stepped out onto the bridge, Allura hurrying to join Coran at the control console. Shiro and Pidge had beaten them there, it seemed, as Shiro was already bent over the screen beside Coran, Pidge bouncing on tiptoes behind them to get a glimpse.

Coran was speaking to a monitor on the console. “It is hardly the time for us to be quibbling over - ” He paused and turned as Allura strode up beside him. “Ah, there you are.”

“Go ahead and move the call to the overhead monitor, Coran,” Allura said.

Coran glanced uncertainly back toward where the other paladins were joining the group on the bridge. “Are you sure we should all be here for this call?”

“It’s not like no one here knows what happened,” Keith said. “They can stay.”

“Erm, I was actually asking Allura to decide - ”

“It’s Keith’s call,” Allura said. “If he’s fine with the others joining, then so am I. Overhead monitor, Coran.”

“Right, of course.” And after a couple of taps on the console, the enormous holographic screen popped up, and Keith felt his blood race at the sight of the figure centered in the shot. King Olren appeared just as polished as ever, hair slick beneath his polished crown and cape perfectly aligned across his shoulders, golden guards standing half out of the frame on either side of him. But now, his face bore none of its old pretense of hospitality. His mouth was pressed to a firm line, jaw stiff, and his eyes were narrow and cold.

Last time Keith had seen those eyes, they had been boring into him lecherously, hungrily, ready to devour Keith whole. The memory of it made his skin crawl, and he shivered involuntarily, wishing he had made a detour to his room to grab his jacket before following Allura to the bridge.

A finger tapped against his arm, and he flinched away before seeing that it belonged to Hunk, who quickly yanked his hand back at Keith’s reaction. “Sorry,” Hunk whispered. “Just checking that you’re okay.”

Keith swallowed and nodded. “I’m fine,” he whispered back.

“Your highness,” Olren said as his eyes roved to Allura. His voice was low, direct.

“Olren,” Allura replied, and Olren scowled at the address. “We’ve already established that our dealings with your planet are over. Why have you contacted us?”

“I already informed your advisor as to the purpose of my call,” Olren said. “My palace’s staff has completed assessment at the damage done to our building, the art and artifacts therein, and the health of myself and several members of my royal guard.”

“Did they now,” Allura said flatly.

“I wouldn’t take such a flippant tone with me, Princess,” Olren said, his scowl deepening. “You cannot expect that your attack on my palace would be ignored. In addition to structural damage your paladins’ weapons caused to my entry hall and entire east wing, many of our furnishings sustained irreversible damage, several of which are of great historical significance and cannot be replaced. Additionally, members of my guard have sustained severe injuries due to your attack.”

“That’s an occupational hazard that they should have seen coming,” Allura said. “More importantly, I would hardly call what my paladins did an ‘attack’. They had every reason and right to defend one of their own, whom _you_ assaulted and violated in the first place.”

“Ah, yes, your red paladin,” Olren said. His eyes roamed along the bridge to find Keith, and when they landed on him, he could feel ice forming in his gut. “A pity, that things had to end between us the way they did. Especially when we could have had such a fortuitous alliance. Don’t make the mistake of thinking I was not hurt by your repudiation, Keith.” He clicked his tongue. “We would have been beautiful together, you know.”

Keith’s vision of the king was blocked as Hunk suddenly stepped in front of him, arm out to hide him entirely from Olren’s predatory gaze. Even though Keith couldn’t see Hunk’s face, the set of his shoulders and the redness climbing up his neck spoke to just how pissed he was.

He wasn’t the only one. Pidge managed to dodge around Coran to slam her hands against the console and snarl up at Olren. “Oh my god, don’t fucking talk to him like you’re a couple who had a bad breakup! You tried to _rape him!_ You’re a fucking monster and you know what, we can turn this castle ship around right now and - ”

“Now, now, Pidge,” Coran said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “We’re not going back to Yuipra. Not to attack, and certainly not to compensate for any ‘damages’ they claim.”

“We are more than entitled to recompense for the damage you’ve done!” Olren snapped. “The appraised monetary cost of material damages to my palace probably nears the value of your entire castle. And that’s not even accounting for bodily damages - ”

“To be frank, your majesty,” Shiro spoke up, the regal address dripping with sarcasm, “There is absolutely no damage Voltron possibly could have inflicted on you and your palace that could even come close to what you tried to do to Keith.”

Olren scoffed. “Either you are simply horrifically naive as to the worth of myself, my palace, and my resources, or you absurdly overestimate the value of your paladin’s virginity.”

 _“Ex-fucking-scuse you?!”_ Pidge cried, as Shiro let out a wordless splutter of indignation and Keith began to shake. Whether out of anxiety or fury, he couldn’t say.

“That is _quite_ enough,” Allura said. “Voltron owes you nothing. _Keith_ owes you nothing. And if you are even incapable of _speaking_ of him with some semblance of decency - ”

“You owe me plenty! You assaulted me in my own home, in my own private chambers! One of your little paladins rendered an indefensible attack on my person which my palace’s healer assures me very nearly left me impotent!”

“Only nearly?” Lance said. “Shit, sorry, I’ll kick harder next time.”

Olren ground his teeth as he glowered down at the paladins. “You are playing a dangerous game, paladins of Voltron. You have given up a partnership that could very easily turn the tides of a war. None of Yuipra’s own allies would dare provide any help to you either, not after we inform them how the Voltron Coalition has treated us.”

Keith’s own jaw set as his blood reached its boiling point, and with a deep breath, he stepped out from behind Hunk. “We don’t need your alliance,” he said, fighting to keep his voice steady and sharp. “We don’t need you. And if this is how you form alliances, I’m betting it won’t take much convincing for your ‘allies’ to side with Voltron.”

Olren’s lips curled, his shark-like smile looking more grotesque than ever when paired with the deadly look in his eyes. “I wouldn’t be so quick to make threats like that, boy. If we decide to take you seriously - ”

“Then once we’re done with the Galra Empire, we’ll know who to take down next.”

“You insolent little - ”

“We are finished here,” Allura cut him off, striding up to the control console. “On behalf of the Voltron Coalition, I would like to state with the utmost clarity that we have no desire to conduct any further dealings with you and your planet, and inform you that any effort you take to go on the offensive against us will be met with resistance and retaliation.” She glanced over her shoulder toward Keith before returning her gaze to Olren. “And on behalf of my paladin, I would like to invite you to take your demands for reparations, and shove them up your arse.”

She shut off the screen before Olren could respond, and brought her hands up to cover her mouth. “Oh, that was so inappropriate to say,” she said softly. “Oh, ancients, that was so _undignified_ …”

“Nah, it was great,” Lance said, striding up to her and giving her a hearty slap on the back. “Sure as hell was a lot more dignified than what I would’ve suggested for him.”

“The nerve of that guy,” Pidge growled. “If I ever see that fucker in person ever again, a hard kick in the nads is gonna seem like a spa day in comparison.”

Keith let out a shaky breath and hugged his arms around his middle. “Hey, uh,” he said. “What he said, about having Yuipra go up against the Coalition - ”

“Not to worry, Number Four,” Coran said. “I can guarantee it’s an empty threat. Siding against the Voltron Coalition would make them appear to be on the side of the Empire, and the other planets in their sector would never stand for that. Definitely wouldn’t be worth their while to risk something like that.”

“Good,” Keith sighed. “Just, God, if a whole other _war_ started over this - ”

“It won’t,” Shiro said. “That’s one thing you won’t have to worry about.”

“Quite right,” said Coran. “Our fight is with the Empire alone, just like always. And even if that changed, I assure you, we would stand by you, until the end.”

“Thanks,” Keith mumbled.

Allura turned away from the console, starting toward the bridge’s center. “For now we should work to put Yuipra behind us,” she said. “Yes, we didn’t get the Yuipran alliance, but we understand now that we didn’t need it, not as badly as we had thought. There are other planets we can look toward to join our Coalition, and we’re going to need to get back to it. The sooner we start looking into new alliances, the better.”

“Of course,” Shiro said with a nod. “Should we start making plans to resume diplomatic efforts?”

“Coran and I will need to begin correspondence with some new planetary representatives to determine where specifically we’ll need to visit and what tactics we’ll need to employ, but yes, we should. In the meantime, I believe we can resume group training this evening. We may not be making attack plans toward the Empire at this precise moment, but that’s no reason to get complacent.”

The other paladins murmured their assent, and Allura turned to Keith. “Keith,” she said. “Are you, er… how are you holding up?”

“Fine,” he said automatically. At her skeptical look, he amended, “I mean, relatively. Fine as could be expected, after, um…” He gestured toward the front of the bridge where the holographic screen had been.

Allura nodded. “Understandable. Well, you are free to join us in training this evening, and in our diplomacy efforts once we begin them. Or you are free to sit them out, if you need the time. Whatever you decide, I’ll support you. _We’ll_ support you. No matter what.” Her gaze was intense as she spoke, the weight of her words clear.

“Allura?” Shiro said. “Are you, uh, getting at something?”

“That’s not really for me to - ”

“Yeah,” Keith interrupted. “Yeah, she is.” He took a deep breath. The others were all gathered here, all ready to defend and support him. And he was grateful for that, he truly was. Grateful for the anger they’d shown toward Olren on his behalf, grateful for their efforts to make things right.

But he still needed time. He wasn’t ready yet to fully move past what had happened, and he needed the space to do so on his own terms.

And now seemed as good a time as any to tell them that.

“I’ve… been doing some thinking,” Keith said. “About what I need to be doing right now, and where I need to be. And, um, well - we need to talk…”

**Author's Note:**

> [I tumble.](https://justheretobreakthings.tumblr.com/)


End file.
